October 12, 2022
Read time: ± 4 minutes
Today is a holiday in Spain, so this was written yesterday. Apologies in advance for any temporal errors.
New here? The WC is a selection of five useful, interesting & notable insights, handpicked by our CIO Wyatt Cavalier and pumped into your inbox every Wednesday.
Table of Contents
The Chinese property market is collapsing (has collapsed?)
It’s been a tough year for Chinese property developers in general, but especially for Evergrande. The entire industry needs a governmental bailout before the house of cards tumbles down.
Evergrande’s founder, Hui Ka Yan, has seen his personal fortune tumble by 83% over the last two years.
But in 2020, before the troubles, the billionaire (yes, he still has $6b) bought a 45-room mansion overlooking London’s Hyde Park for $227m.
Now he’s being forced to auction it off.
I think he’ll do ok, though. Seven wealthy “middle eastern and American” potential buyers have already toured the residence.
And while Hui hasn’t done anything to improve the property since its purchase two years ago, he did somehow manage to get planning permission to refit the home into a palace worth north of $500m just months after that type of permission was outlawed.
That permission alone will potentially add $100m to the sales price.
Nerd Fight 2
A few weeks ago, I alerted you to the ongoing drama among the chess elite (UPDATE: It’s spread to poker and fishing).
Now, an astronaut is picking a fight with super-nerd Neil deGrasse Tyson.
[Minor Spoiler Alert] Tyson picks apart an early scene in Top Gun: Maverick where the eponymous pilot ejects from a plane at Mach 10.5.
In the film, Maverick turns up disheveled and thirsty but is otherwise fine. DeGrasse thinks he’d be liquified —
Noted spacewalking astronaut Scott Kelly thinks that, actually, Maverick would be fine at ejection because the air is so thin at that altitude.
The landing, though… That’s splatter time.
This is still the most ridiculous/disappointing example of plot armor I’ve ever seen.
Three new things I like.
I don’t usually shill for other people’s stuff, but I discovered a few new things this week that I think you guys might enjoy.
These aren’t affiliate links or anything…just things I like.
Supercharged Google Trends by Glimpse
My dear friend and co-founder, Stefan, discovered this one (and didn’t tell me about it) —
If you’re unfortunate enough to follow me on Twitter, you know I love a bit of Google Search Trends porn.
The google chrome extension tarts those up and makes them far more useful.
The Diff by Byrne Hobart
I never promote other newsletters, because, you know, they’re competitors.
But this one is fab.
Byrne digs into a wide variety of weird stuff, including the economics of gas stations, how a prop trading hedge fund uses poker chips to decide who to hire, and the Porsche IPO.
The Cultural Tutor Twitter account
This one gets a bit overwhelming with 50 to 100 tweet threads every day, but it’s full of fascinating and mind-bending content.
A few recent favorites include:
- 15 of the most beautiful short poems you (might) have never read
- A journey through the art, poetry, and music of Autumn
- A brief history if India
It’s worth a follow, even if you only dig into one thread a week.
Btw, if you’re liking these recommendations, let me know & I’ll do this more often.
Americans are getting itchy feet.
Earlier this year, moving to Portugal was the thing. Everyone was talking about it, and even though that’s tapered off now, real estate values there continue to climb to this day, despite rising interest rates —
I don’t know what the cause is (if you do, let me know), but Americans want out, and western Europe is now the place to be, apparently —
And, as you can see, it’s not driven by the Portugal phenomenon. It’s all of western Europe.
Any theories?
(PS: Portugal will start taxing crypto gains next year.)
Austria likes beer.
Austria reelected a very boring-looking man named Alexander Van der Bellen as their president again this week.
But more than 8% of Austrians voted for a punk rocker named Dominik Wlazny. Wlazny, founder of the Beer Party, had an ambitious platform:
The party’s goals include having a fountain in the capital that dispenses beer, saying in a proposal to the city it could “raise the quality of life” for residents and draw tourists.
He is also in favor of gender equality, animal welfare, and cabaret.
Forecast to secure only 5% of the vote (he got 8%), he finished fourth out of seven.
What caught your eye this week?
Cheers,
Wyatt
