The Sunday Drive - 10/15/2023 Edition [#80]
The Sunday Drive - 10/15/2023 Edition [#80]
Musings and Meanderings of a Financial Provocateur
👋🏼 Hello friends,
Greetings from Saratoga Springs, NY! Let's take it easy and enjoy a leisurely Sunday Drive around the internet.
The Sunday Drive is also published at NewLanternCapital.com.
🎶 Vibin'
With all the tragedy and turmoil in the world, I think a song about hope in the presence of hopelessness seems appropriate. So, this week I’m vibin’ to Come Sail Away by Styx from their album, The Grand Illusion.
💭 Quote of the Week
“Investing is the age-old, never-ending emotional battle between fear of the future and faith in the future.”
– Nick Murray
📈 Chart of the Week
Labor productivity has turned positive once again after having been sharply negative the last few years due to the pandemic. I am of the belief that, if properly harnessed and put to use, the power of artificial intelligence could help drive an extended period of productivity-driven economic growth, much like we saw with the advent of the commercial internet in the mid-to-late 1990s.
🚙 Interesting Drive-By's
This week we have articles on AI, Social Media, Inequality and Cities:
🤔 Automate the Simple Stuff with Stupid Tools - from Evan Armstrong
This is the dumbest AI will ever be—and it’s still magic. [link]
👍🏼 Great News - Social Media is Falling Apart - from Business Insider
For more than a decade, social media has brought people together on a handful of platforms, most notably Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But in an effort to feed the rapacious desire for growth, these platforms have transformed from places for people to connect to entertainment channels. As the big players have deteriorated into a chaotic mash of shouting and sponsored content, alienated users are decamping for a hodgepodge of platforms. [link]
💰 Inequality and Abundance - from Dror Poleg
Morrissey once wrote that money changes everything. But economists and psychologists disagree. In many cases, giving people more money does not make them happier and does not make them spend more. People don't think about their income in isolation; they think about it in relative terms, and their feelings and behavior change in relation to whether or not other people around make more (or less) as well. [link]
🌆 The Way to Save America’s Cities? Do What Tokyo Does - from Eliza Relman
Cities across the US are flailing under a worsening housing affordability crisis. Superstar metropolises from Los Angeles to Miami are becoming playgrounds for the elite. Americans fleeing New York and San Francisco for more affordable lives in the Sunbelt are experiencing sticker shock. The median home price in the US has jumped 52% just since January 2020.
But affordability isn't an issue in the world's biggest city, Tokyo. Despite facing many of the same pressures of scarce land and a growing population, the city of 14 million builds much more housing — and much more quickly — than US cities do. Since the 1960s, Tokyo has tripled its housing supply, while New York's has grown by only about a third. And because housing is far more abundant in Japan's capital, it's also cheaper. The median Japanese tenant spends about 20% of their disposable income on rent (in America it's 30%). Rent for a studio or one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo, which Americans are fawning over as "the new Paris," is a quarter of what it is in New York. [link]
👋🏼 Parting Thought
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.
Please note that the content in The Sunday Drive is intended for informational purposes only, and is in no way intended to be financial, legal, tax, marital, or even cooking advice. Consult your own professionals as needed.
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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