Weekend Reading #283
This is the two-hundred-and-eigthy-third weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 14th September 2024
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What we're thinking.
Markets are whipsawing a bit still after a stronger week and there isn’t so much going on to be honest, so we wait patiently for further clues in the price action. We suspect next week will be a big one in terms of discovering which way we want to go. Sorry no crystal ball from us.
What we're reading.
This is a clearly sensationalistic headline in the WSJ drawing attention to South Korea’s pitiful birth rate. The problem is its true! Incredibly, dog strollers have outpaced baby strollers as the population growth rate continues to plummet. South Korea is not the only country with this problem. China’s demographic decline is now well known and Japan’s has been for some time. DC
As far as languages go, Georgian is one of the most complex looking ones around. To the untrained eye, the alphabet looks like a mix between sanskrit and hindi, although upon further research it seems like despite Georgia’s location in the caucuses, this paper published last year in Nature suggests its linguistic roots actually stretch WAY further back in time and is part of a family of languages comprising only 4 members: Georgian, Svan, Megrelian and Laz. Georgian is the most widely spoken of the lot, but the fascinating thing is these languages seem to exist in a vacuum, in that specific region of the world. Whereas most other languages trace their roots through time and space, following paths of migration and trade over the centuries, Georgian seems to be quite the exception. The best part of this paper: the fact that the authors modelled language similarities through a “best-fit Bayesian phylogenetic model”. To be honest, no clue what that means, but statistics applied in linguistic studies – definitely learning something new every day. EL
What we're watching.
I haven’t watched much of the Paralympics historically, but my interest was piqued when I heard about the size of the crowds attending the events in Paris. The number of people attending was spectacular. And when this videosurfaced of 17-year-old Paralympian, Sheetal Devi, I understood what all the fuss was about. Devi is an archer but was born with no arms! She holds the bow between her toes. Incredible!
The Perfect Couple on Netflix with Lieb Schrieber and Nicole Kidman was excellent! Very much like the White Lotus but exceptionally well done. A good old whodunnit and for a seasoned campaigner like me it kept me guessing all the way to the end.
I also watched a Mexican drama series called Accidente (The Accident) and it was wild. Completely far-fetched, Mindless entertainment with a capital M and nowhere near the above series in terms of quality but so much fun. DC
I managed to catch a rerun of a rather entertaining film entitled “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” which amazing enough is based on the true story of Major Gus March-Phillips and his band of supposed misfits, organised into an “unauthorised, unsanctioned and illegal” mission by British Intelligence under Sir Winston Churchill as a rather unorthodox approach to battling the Nazi U-boats in the second world war, and whose efforts ultimately created a gap for the US to send reinforcements across the pond. Aside from being highly entertaining with a healthy dose of English humour, it also features the character of Ian Fleming – none other than the author of the James Bond novels, who supposedly based James Bond on none other than March-Phillips himself. It’s a fun watch, and packed with lots of explosions in typical Guy Ritchie fashion. EL
What we're listening to.
If you are ever interested in trying to understand the complex game of how volatility and the derivatives markets affect price, then Cem Karsan has carved himself a nice niche in this space and is more than happy to talk about it. This is not a space that we are native to but over the years have learned a lot about, especially given the influence it has over the broader market. Karsan appeared on the Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart Podcast and he spoke about what he sees as influencing markets at the moment and in the coming months. If you want to plug into anything this week, this is it. Clue: More volatility but that may not mean what you think.
On another note, Çağdaş Üngör, of Istanbul’s Marmara University, appearedon the Turkey Book Talk podcast to discuss her view that contrary to most views of Turkey being the bridge between East and West, the shift in the global great game to the Pacific has reduced Turkey’s importance. Being a bit part player with both the Americans and the Chinese means that apart from certain niche industries (drones and tv show exports), Turkey is becoming no more than a regional player. As such it is seeking to shape its own back yard as opposed to the much-vaunted Erdogan view of Turkey’s grand importance as a geopolitical player. An interesting view and a good listen. DC