This will be the only post this week from me. This week I’m attending the ULI Spring Meeting in Detroit, MI.

Cheers,

Duff

Perspective

WSJ – Why Tech Titans Are Betting on India, in 14 Charts – Newley Purnell, Min Jung Kim, and Rosa de Acosta 4/18

• Clearly there is some disconnect between showing just this chart and the title. Emphasis less on India and more on the gender split of Facebook users.

Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice

Bloomberg Businessweek – China Quietly Rolled Out a Very Big Bang – John Micklethwait 4/19

Bloomberg – Latest Climate Threat for Coastal Cities: More Rich People – Christopher Flavelle 4/23

Financial Samurai – Why Households Need To Earn $300,000 A Year To Live A Middle Class Lifestyle Today – Sam

WSJ – Real Estate Stocks Are on Sale but No One Is Buying – Ken Brown 4/27

Markets / Economy

WSJ – Cable TV’s Cord-Cutting Woes Grow, Highlighting Divergence With Netflix – Shalini Ramachandran 4/27

Energy

Reuters – Venezuela faces heavy bill as grace period lapses on China loans – Corina Pons 4/27

Finance

FT – WeWork bond finds home in yield-starved market – Alexandra Scaggs 4/26

• “This week high-yield bond investors faced a puzzle: how to value a bond sold by an unprofitable company that does not own hard assets or offer a clear outlook for its free cash flow?”
• “The company in question was WeWork, the office-sharing company that last year attracted a $4.4bn equity investment from Japan’s Softbank. WeWork, which hired JPMorgan to lead the sale but had more than a dozen other banks working as well, attracted enough demand to increase the sale to $702m from $500m.”
• “Several investors who steered clear of the bond — and one who bought it — said WeWork’s debt was not the type that typically appealed to high-yield investors. But nor was it the first company vowing to disrupt an industry to have found buyers in the junk market. Last year electric carmaker Tesla sold a $1.8bn high-yield bond, and in March, Uber raised $1.5bn in a leveraged loan.”
• “A combination of low interest rates and shrinking supply has made it harder for money managers to find bonds with attractive yields. WeWork’s bonds were sold at a yield of 7.875%.”

Environment / Science

LAT – A Hawaiian island got about 50 inches of rain in 24 hours. Scientist warn it’s a sign of the future – Heidi Chang 4/28

Construction

WSJ – Daily Shot: CME Lumber (Jul) 4/26

China

FT – China’s HNA reports debts have soared to $94bn – Lucy Hornby 4/28

Middle East

Visual Capitalist – Knight Frank: A Time-lapse of Dubai’s Astonishing Growth – Nick Routley 4/28

• Very cool animation.

South America

NYT – ‘Their Country Is Being Invaded’: Exodus of Venezuelans Overwhelms Northern Brazil – Ernesto Londono 4/28