“Our friend is doing his part. The marble for his new countertops will be cut in Italy… making employment for stonecutters and shippers. Carpenters will spend months knocking together frames and staircases. Heating and air-conditioning specialists, architects, wallpaper salesmen, decorators, roofers, electricians, plumbers, surveyors… We will raise a glass – or two – in honor of the spendthrifts who keep the wheels turning. And we give special thanks for that little subset of the 1% – those who sacrifice their own balance sheets for the benefit of the consumer economy. Yes, they will be poorer – financially – but at least they will have nice houses to live in when the next crisis comes.”
Tag Archives: Mayfair Economy
The global wine drought that never was

“Recently the world’s media reported the alarming news that demand for wine has outstripped supply. Latest figures indicated a shortfall of 300 million cases in 2012, it was claimed… the world was facing the serious prospect of a wine shortage. Scary graphs were published showing production dropping while consumption increased. But is it true? All these news reports were based on a single piece of research carried out by the Australian research division of the investment bank, Morgan Stanley. This made Reuters finance blogger, Felix Salmon, suspicious – especially when he realised the report was promoting an Australian wine company as a top stock pick to buy.”
Survival Tips From the World’s Second Oldest Bank

“Over the past decade, the world’s second-oldest bank, Berenberg, based in Hamburg, has more than doubled its workforce by using the financial crisis as an opportunity to expand. Bloomberg Europe Editor David Tweed met with Andreas Brodtmann, one of the bank’s three managing partners, and found the key to its strategy: its unusual approach to risk.”
Dealership That Sold A Tesla For Bitcoin Wants To Make More Digital Deals

“Cedric Davy, marketing director for Lamborghini Newport Beach, told The Post that the dealership was at first dubious about the idea of selling a car for bitcoin when a buyer first approached it on Monday. But, after a day’s thought, the dealership decided to accept the offer. It used BitPay, an electronic payment processing system, to cash out the buyer’s 91.4 bitcoins for more than $100,000. The transaction took 24 hours to complete. Despite bitcoin’s volatility, the dealership is still gung-ho to do more digital deals; It recieved four more offers after the story broke yesterday.”
How to Buy a Tesla with Bitcoins

“The forward thinking car dealership, Lamborghini Newport Beach, in Southern California, has just announced that they accept Bitcoins as a form of payment. Their first proud sale was of a Tesla Model S Performance, for what I estimate was sold for around 70 Bitcoins (~$70,000). In 2010 someone bought a pizza for 10,000 Bitcoins, today that same person could have bought over 140 Teslas. Think about that for a second.”
Bitcoin fuels new car sales at Overland Park Jeep
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“‘Tis the season for car sales at Overland Park Jeep Dodge Ram Chrysler, the first business of it’s kind to accept the increasingly popular internet currency Bitcoin. Since word got out that the dealership was selling new cars for Bitcoin, Bitcoin enthusiasts from across the nation and around the world have shown an overwhelming response. In fact, with many vehicles already purchased and no end in sight, a question frequently posed by financial experts seems to have been answered. President and owner of the dealership, Norman Vialle, is not the least bit surprised by the response, saying ‘When you offer a form of payment that no one else is offering, you’re going to attract more buyers.'”
Up close with the $83 million diamond

“Sotheby’s auctioned off an extremely rare 59.6 carat pink diamond for over $83 million in Geneva.”
China’s rich fleeing the country—with their fortunes

“It’s one of the largest and most rapid wealth migrations of our time: hundreds of billions of dollars, and waves of millionaires flowing out of China to overseas destinations. According to WealthInsight, the Chinese wealthy now have about $658 billion stashed in offshore assets. And it’s not just the money that’s exiting the country. The wealthy are increasingly following their money overseas. Wealthy Chinese buyers purchased more than $8 billion worth of residential real estate in the U.S. in the 12 months ended in March, according to the National Association of Realtors. China’s wealthy also are pouring money into collectibles and art. It’s also going to wine and diamonds.”
Early ‘90s collectible gaming card sells for $27k on eBay

“Pictured above is the ‘Alpha’ Black Lotus from the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Dubbed ‘Alpha’ because it was published in the game’s first edition back in 1993, the Black Lotus was printed in a run of only 1100, and is now on the game’s ‘Reserved List’ of cards that will never be reissued. It’s typically considered the most valuable Magic card ever printed — but a recent eBay auction, which concluded on November 17, sets a new standard at $27,302. Back in 1993, an 8-card ‘booster pack’ — which might have contained a Black Lotus if you were lucky — cost $2.45.”
Black Market Dollar Exchange Sparks Argentina Luxury Sales Crackdown

“Argentines who buy a car valued at more than 350,000 pesos ($58,600) will now be required to justify the transaction with the Financial Information Unit, the nation’s money-laundering watchdog, according to a Nov. 11 decree. Argentina is boosting its currency controls as consumers faced with 25 percent annual inflation turn to everything from luxury cars to gold and bitcoins as a store of savings. With the black market offering holders of undeclared U.S. currency 3.8 pesos more than the official exchange rate of 5.9764 pesos per dollar, demand for premium cars from Volkswagen AG’s Porsche and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is causing a 33 percent jump in imports this year.”
