The great wealth avalanche. Chinese white-collar salary cuts. North Virginia, data centre capital of the world & My Beautiful Laundrette revisited.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
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Eibar painter Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945), “Women of Sepúlveda”.
The great wealth avalanche
In the next 25 years, over $100tn in assets — ranging from property, aged wines and artwork — will be transferred from the boomers and older generations to their heirs in the US alone, according to Cerulli Associates, a wealth manager. Vanguard — another such firm — recently projected that over $18tn in wealth will be handed down globally by 2030. It will be the largest intergenerational transfer of assets in history. What might it mean for our economies, markets and societies? First, not everyone will be lucky enough to have a wealthy benefactor. In America, the wealthiest 10 per cent of households will pass on the majority of the wealth.
Source: Financial Times
Source: Congressional Budget Office
Salary cuts in China
Almost a third of office workers saw their salaries fall last year according to recruitment platform Zhaopin. From property to technology and finance, white-collar Chinese have taken a hit from the government’s campaign to rein in excesses.
Source: Bloomberg
Since 2020, the Eurozone “periphery” has run an even tighter fiscal policy than Germany.
Source: Financial Times
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IMF on Africa’s divergent growth models
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Ignacio Zuloaga. Charles Morice and his wife , c. 1898 Ignacio Zuloaga Museum. Pedraza Castle, Segovia © Ignacio Zuloaga, VEGAP, Madrid, 2017
Source: ABC
Baykar buys into Italy
Turkey’s drone-champion Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi got a green light from Italian authorities to buy aviation and defense company Piaggio Aerospace. The Industry Ministry authorized the sale to unmanned aerial vehicles specialist Baykar, according to a statement, which didn’t include financial terms. Three binding offers were received. Piaggio Aerospace, formerly known as Piaggio Aero Industries SpA, designs and builds aircraft and aeronautical engines for military and civil applications. It has been for sale for years. The group has been in state-supervised insolvency proceedings, a status available to larger firms, since 2018.
Source: Bloomberg
North Virginia: Data Center Alley
The clustering of big names in North Virginia is remarkable:
Source: Virginia Mercury
When things get really bad, as Wall Street melted down in October 1929, 17 percent of stocks attracted no bid.
The 1929 crash of the New York stock exchange as a liquidity crisis
Source: Jean-Laurent Cadorel in Economic History Review November 2024, First published: 03 January 2024
My beautiful Laundrette (1985) (Director: Stephen Frears, Screenplay: Hanif Kureshi)
The lines are still punchy and the scenario great. The portrayal of 1980s England is evocative. The moments of queer intimacy are still beautiful and sexy. Daniel Day-Lewis is still irresistible (full disclosure: In the mid/late 80s, I styled my hair and hat-style after his). But, as a film it now seems stilted and crudely cut, amateurish or stylized to a comic book degree. At times it seemed more theatrical than cinematic. If you haven’t seen MBL, you should. But if this film defined an era for you and it has been decades since you last saw it, be prepared for a somewhat out of body experience.
Zuloaga Zabaleta, Ignacio, Self-Portrait.
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