Weekly Round Up #5
This newsletter provides you content for the upcoming entire week
TRENDS I’M WATCHING
This section is where I’ll share favorite podcasts and youtube content which does a good job of diving into the nuances of important trends
Global Economics Pt. I: Zoltan published research for Credit Suisse for 8 years, and is now running his own shop. He talks his book here, so take everything with a grain of salt. Regardless, he fuels the narrative about de-globalization.
Perspective of the West: "It's becoming very obvious that when you talk to policy circles and investors in the West, the primary focus is on how do we decouple our supply chain that is running thru China, how do we become more self sufficient in terms of rare earth, all the capital needs we for have for energy, chips, so fourth.. The focus in the West is on making the real economy being decoupled from the East.”
Perspective of the East: "When you speak with policy maker in the East, the primary focus, since they control supply chain, is how do you extract yourself from the Western financial system and de-risk this relationship that you hav finally with the USD and Western financial institutions in general."
Global Economics Pt. II: A lot has happened since April 2020, towards the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. For a start, there was lots of talk about a potential reshuffling of the way the global economy works; things like nearshoring and deglobalization. But the US is still running a current account deficit and China is still running a current account surplus. So in this episode, Brad Setser returns to discuss what has and hasn't changed in global trade in the last three years. He's was appointed to be a trade advisor in the Biden administration but has since left the administration and returned to the Council on Foreign Relations. He talks about everything from the US-China trade imbalance to the impact of sanctions on the world economy to China's electric vehicle and plane production, plus the future of the dollar.
US Real Estate Markets: I love TreppWire, they deliver the best data in RE. I find it particularly interesting, over the last few months of listening to them I’ve heard an obvious uptick in delinquencies. Although, delinquency rates are still below historical averages it seems, the growth is aggressive.
“Post debt ceiling, the treasury had to replenish *coffers. Which meant a huge amount of issuance on the table, people talking a trillion dollars. And what Powell and the rest of the FOMC members might have been thinking yesterday is that this effect might have had the impact of a rate hike. You’re issuing so many treasuries you’re going to put upwards pressure on rates. Why double down right now with a hike when you’re not sure exactly how impactful some of the treasury moves will be over the next couple weeks?”
*basically a bank account which represents the amount of money the US has to pay bills.
This podcasts feels the Fed is being extra careful to first observe the impact the past rate hikes and now coffer replenishments are having on markets.
Creator Economy: Despite the tide turning, I’m still a big believer in the idea of crypto; especially community NFTs. I see these as nothing more than an online membership card which gets you into the according clubs. Limewire, a brand which I grew up with and was a pioneer in online music (comparable to Napster), is reviving itself. Limewire announced they’re web3’ifying their platform and launching as a rival to Patreon. They publicly just stole away Lauren Jauregul from Patreon (4M+ followers on Twitter).
There will allow artists to supply fans with exclusive content or experiences in exchange for subscriptions and payments from fans – the twist being that fans will “take ownership of each individual content piece.” In short, this means if you back an undiscovered artist early on then you’ll gain some sort of benefit (financial or access) over time as they grow in popularity.
Flying cars: Finally, the FAA approved their first ever flying car. Hint Hint, cars are a theme throughout this whole newsletter. This company is funded by Tim Draper, and pre-orders are open now.
IDEAS I’M BUILDING
This section is where I”ll share what ideas I’m working on, they could be anything
My Plan after Day 60: I think what I’m going to do after these 60 days; start posting daily blogs to Linkedin instead of Substack, publish a weekly podcast and a ‘weekly round up’ using ConvertKit.
I’m starting to build an AR/VR game for fun: We are looking for the right dev shop who has expertise in building Sports apps for AR/VR. I’m also open to hiring developers directly. If you know anyone, lmk
Community: Testing out Substack’s subscriber chat. Join if you want to talk 1:1 or in a group
GOALS I’VE ACCOMPLISHED
This section is where I cover recent thing that have gone right
Family time: I was in Chicago this past weekend to spend time with my parents and aunt/uncle/cousins. We had a blast and went down to the Nascar race; the first time in history Chicago shut down their streets and allowed Nascar to race down Michigan Ave and Lake Shore Dr. So fun, happy 4th!
REMEMBERING THE PIONEERS
This section is where I’ll honor and say thanks to a legendary #Builder
Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison: Sticking with the Nascar theme. These two were among the drivers battling for the 1992 NASCAR Cup Series championship, a tense fight eventually won by Kulwicki. But in 1993, they both tragically lost their lives in freak accidents. Alan in a private plane crash, Davey in a helicopter. Within a stretch of four months, stock car racing was robbed of two of its brightest stars, impacting both the short- and long-term future of the sport.
Allison, 32, had scored 19 Cup wins and was seen as a future Cup champion.
Kulwicki, 38, won five Cup races and probably would have been a championship contender for years to come.
