The Sunday Drive - 02/05/2023 Edition
👋🏻 Hello friends,
Let's take it easy and enjoy our leisurely Sunday Drive around the internet.
Vibin'
Those who know me, or have been reading The Sunday Drive for a while, know that I’m a sucker for Texas bands, and in particular those hailing from Austin, the Live Music Capital of the World™️.
The origin story behind the Vibe of the Week is intriguing. An elderly couple in Texas were going to a fiddling festival. The wife suffered from dementia and the husband had previously suffered from multiple strokes. It was a 15 mile drive to the festival, but their children got worried when they hadn't heard from them in days. The couple went missing. The couple's wrecked car was eventually found hundreds of miles away in a canyon, and the couple found dead inside. The band’s guitar player was obsessed with this case. He wrote this song about them. Some might say this is songwriting at its best - turning a tragedy into an upbeat and memorable pop song.
Given the focus on demographics and longevity as two of the underlying themes of The Sunday Drive, I thought this was a good fit for the Vibe of the Week. Please enjoy Fastball’s The Way from their 1998 album, “All the Pain Money Can Buy”.
💡 Quotes of the Week
“Never have I enjoyed youth so thoroughly as I have in my old age...Nothing is inherently and invincibly young except spirit. And spirit can enter a human being perhaps better in the quiet of old age and dwell there more undisturbed than in the turmoil of adventure.“ - George Santanaya
"Authenticity is the truest form of rebellion." - Shelley Paxton
📈 Chart of the Week
Signs of improvement in the direction of income inequality.
Interesting Drive-By's
🤔 AI and the Age of the Individual - People think AI is going to replace individuals and create gigantic trillion dollar mega-corporations that will upend Google. But […] there’s a strong case to be made that rather than replacing individuals, recent advances in AI will empower them to make an impact on a scale matching some of the biggest businesses, research labs, and creative organizations of today.
💡 We’re All Rebels When We Are Living Our Truth - Living life on your terms is the exact opposite of the tidy scripts, pre-populated checklists, and exhausting expectations handed to you by society (or maybe your parents). We’re all rebels when we’re living our truth. Leather jacket not required.
📈 Global Investment in Longevity Hit $5.2bn in 2022 - A total of $5.2 billion was invested into 130 deals in 2022. Although down 15% when compared with 2021 – a breakout year for longevity investing – which saw $6.2 billion raised from 190 deals, 2022 compares favorably with 2020, which saw $3.0 billion raised from 148 deals.
This growth of 77% from 2020 to 2022 highlights the continuing strong trend line growth in the longevity industry; it is also important to note that the longevity sector is demonstrating stronger resilience than both the biotech and fintech sectors.
🧐 Who Wants to Live Forever? - How do you adapt to an older world and pay for the inevitable pension time bomb as this super-ager cohort approaches retirement age?
📉 The Art of Short Selling - Among all the activities in finance, short-selling remains one of the most misunderstood. To many, the practice of selling something you don’t own with the intention of buying it back later at a cheaper price appears…abstract. Few baulk at the idea of buying low and selling high, but reverse the chronology and it sows confusion.
💸 FOMO: The Worst Financial Trait - A funny thing about money is that it’s a negative art. You often have a better chance of accumulating more of it by getting rid of bad traits vs. acquiring good ones.
If you have any cool articles or ideas that might be interesting for future Sunday Drive-by's, please send them along or tweet 'em at me.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend and a great week ahead. See you next Sunday...
Your faithful financial provocateur,
-Mike
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