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When governments create insane amounts of money, the recipients of that money tend to behave accordingly. Consider:
(Washington Post) – He is known as one of the great minds in
20th-century science. But this week, Albert Einstein is making headlines
for his advice on how to live a happy life — and a tip that paid off.
In November 1922, Einstein was traveling from Europe to Japan for a
lecture series for which he was paid 2,000 pounds by his Japanese
publisher and hosts, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography,
“Einstein: His Life and Universe.” During the journey, the 43-year-old
learned he’d been awarded his field’s highest prize: the Nobel Prize in
physics. The award recognized his contributions to theoretical physics.
News of Einstein’s arrival spread quickly through Japan, and
thousands of people flocked to catch a glimpse of the Nobel laureate.
Impressed but also embarrassed by the publicity, Einstein tried to write
down his thoughts and feelings from his secluded room at the Imperial
Hotel in Tokyo.
That’s when the messenger arrived with a delivery. He either “refused
to accept a tip, in line with local practice, or Einstein had no small
change available,” according to the AFP.
Instead, Einstein wrote two short notes and handed them to the
messenger. If you are lucky, the notes themselves will someday be worth
more than some spare change, Einstein said, according to the seller of
the letters, a resident of Hamburg, Germany who is reported to be a
relative of the messenger.
Those autographed notes, in which Einstein offered his thoughts on
how to live a happy and fulfilling life, sold at a Jerusalem auction
house Tuesday for a combined $1.8 million.
“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of
success combined with constant restlessness,” reads one of the
notes,written in German on the hotel’s stationery.
It just sold for $1.56 million. The letter had originally been
estimated to sell for between $5,000 and $8,000, according to the
Winner’s Auctions and Exhibitions website.
———————
(CNBC) – The supply shortage that has been plaguing the nation’s
housing market for the past two years has now affected the most
expensive homes.
The number of multimillion-dollar listings is suddenly dropping, and that is only making these pricey homes, well, pricier.
The top 5 percent of homes by price sold in the third quarter saw
their values increase 4.9 percent compared with a year ago, hitting an
average of $1.71 million, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage.
“There is still strong buyer demand for high-end homes,” said
Redfin’s chief economist, Nela Richardson. “Despite declining inventory,
luxury sales soared in the third quarter.”
Sales of homes priced at or above $1 million were up 11 percent from a
year ago, while sales of homes priced at or above $5 million were up
almost as much at 10 percent, Richardson explained.
———————
(Yahoo!) – A constant beloved companion of Paul Newman for years, the
late Hollywood star’s Rolex has sold for $17.8 million, setting a world
auction record for a wristwatch, Phillips said Friday.
Given to him by his wife Joanne Woodward and lovingly inscribed while
the couple filmed and co-starred in the 1969 movie “Winning,” Newman
was photographed wearing the iconic stainless steel watch on countless
occasions.
Auction house Phillips said it was snapped up late Thursday in New
York by an anonymous telephone buyer for $17.8 million after 12 minutes
of frenzied bidding in a sale that attracted collectors from more than
40 countries.
———————
Company adds ‘Blockchain’ to its name and its shares surge nearly 400% (GATA) – A British company that has been investing in internet and information businesses is having its best day on record.
On-line Plc jumped as much as 394 percent today after announcing
plans to change its name to On-line Blockchain Plc, following an initial
climb of 19 percent on Thursday when it announced the news. It’s the
biggest one-day gain for the small-cap company since its December 1996
listing. The trading volume that reached 2.9 million shares by early
afternoon in London is equal to more than 16 times the entire year’s
trading before the last two days.
The first question that comes to mind here is
psychological/spiritual. Say you have a spare 20 mil lying around and
can do one of two things with it: Either lift 40 or so poor kids out of
poverty for a lifetime or buy some dead actor’s wristwatch. In Scenario
One you spend your remaining years on this Earth following the progress
of people who because of you are living good, useful lives (the details
of which they’re happy to share with their benefactor). In Scenario Two
you have a (seriously ugly) watch in a glass case surrounded by security
sensors to show your friends. And you…choose the latter. Seems like a
hard thing to carry around, but hey, the money keeps rolling in so maybe
with the next 20 mil…
The second question concerns levels of self-involvement. Money spent
on a handful of Einstein’s countless extant words could finance the
research of a biotechnologist working on a cure for aging or cancer. If
you’re rich and of a certain age, seems like you’d be more concerned
with living longer to enjoy your wealth than owning a piece of paper,
regardless of what’s written on it.
The last question is about simple intelligence. If you’re rich you’re
presumably old enough to recall the 1990s when stocks would soar after
adopting a dot-com suffix – and what happened to nearly all of those
stocks in 2000. And yet here you are falling for the same scam. A fool
and his money indeed.
This is not to say that some of the trophy assets listed above aren’t
valuable. But the opportunity costs of paying today’s prices for them
are both shocking and sad. The fact that so many seem willing to accept
those costs implies that beyond a certain point money doesn’t just
destabilize the currency markets. It also twists its owners.
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John Rubino runs the popular financial website DollarCollapse.com. He is co-author, with GoldMoney’s James Turk, of The Money Bubble (DollarCollapse Press, 2014) and The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit From It (Doubleday, 2007), and author of Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom (Wiley, 2008), How to Profit from the Coming Real Estate Bust (Rodale, 2003) and Main Street, Not Wall Street(Morrow, 1998). After earning a Finance MBA from New York University, he spent the 1980s on Wall Street, as a Eurodollar trader, equity analyst and junk bond analyst. During the 1990s he was a featured columnist with TheStreet.com and a frequent contributor to Individual Investor, Online Investor, and Consumers Digest, among many other publications. He currently writes for CFA Magazine.
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The author is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Sprott Money Ltd. The views and opinions expressed in this material are those of the author or guest speaker, are subject to change and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sprott Money Ltd. Sprott Money does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness and reliability of the information or any results from its use.
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