Of Watches, Diamonds, Oil and Immigrants
Sharing More, Paying Less
Mighty Apple is having difficulty developing one of its core products, the iWatch, into a must-have medical device. It would compete with other wearable medical devices that are consulted by Americans after their mid-day snacks, unembarrassed being seen talking to their wrists. This enables the wearers of these devices, in the words of AARP, a lobby group representing its 40 million, over-the-age-of 50 members, “to get a better handle on what’s happening inside your body.”
Most of these devices take the form of smart watches that also tell the time, and are used by workers who have wandered into their offices during the new Tuesday-to-Thursday work week to leave on time for the 5-6 PM dinner reservations that are the new normal for many people who can find some means of commuting to work, safely, in the case of New Yorkers. At dinner, austerity is the theme of these times in which the cost of out-of-home dining continues its rapid ascent.
At the table, 55% are selecting cheaper items than before, 43 per cent have cut out dessert and/or alcohol, and 41 per cent do without starters according to data-gatherer Statista. Some diners share entrees, a practice restaurants would like to ban, but dare not. Instead, reports The Wall Street Journal, chefs are busily developing dishes that cannot be shared: single-bite items like duck confit spring roll. In pricier restaurants in the Hamptons, menus now feature “small plates like thinly sliced raw yellowtail ($24) and fluke ($18), that aren’t meant for sharing.” Undoubtedly appreciated by Wall Street bankers, some of whom (especially deal makers, aka “Masters of the Universe”, circa early this century) will see their bonuses shrink by 15-25 per cent, after a 26 per cent drop in 2022, with wealth managers up and deal makers down. That should not put a severe crimp in the lifestyle of the Goldman Sachs trader who stepped down after earning $100 million over the past three years leading the firm’s commodities-trading business.
Rich Renters
Many Americans are distressed at their inability to afford a home of their own. Nearly half of young adults age 18-to-34 are living at the home from which some of them emerged into what proved to be a cruel, hard and expensive world. But many who could afford to become homeowners would rather not. The class of permanent renters includes many high earners. Perhaps one-in-four renters earn more than $200,000 per year, a four-fold increase since 2010 – the result of a preference for vacations, out-of-home dining and roof-top swimming pools maintained by a landlord.
“The border is closed, the border is secure,” swears Director of Homeland Security
Some 3 million people from Africa, China, the Middle East, South America and other places have crossed our Southern Border illegally this past year, many with court dates to test their asylum claims set for 2032. President Biden has leaped into action, and sent his travel-weary Secretary of State and reality-challenged Secretary of Homeland Security to Mexico to ask its President to help stop the flow of immigrants, many arriving at the border in government-owned rail cars. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AMLO to friends, which undoubtedly include the millions whose illegal transit to our border Mexico facilitates, would love to help, but only if Biden opens a “bilateral dialogue … about differences with Cuba” and ends sanctions on Venezuela; re-opens border crossings that had been closed with damage to Mexican businesses (and presumably the flow of fentanyl), and regularizes the situation of the so-called “Dreamers”. In effect, an attempt to dictate American policy in the hemisphere by a country manufacturing a lethal drug from Chinese ingredients and shipping it here, facilitating the arrival at our border by millions who will cross it illegally, with an economy America could throw into a tailspin if it chose. Yet as immune from American retaliation as Yemen’s Houthis and Iran’s Mullahs.
Never mind. The State Department, which is doing all it can to expedite the issuance of visas to Chinese citizens – the wait time for an interview with a visa-issuing consular section has been cut to two weeks – has announced it will
deny visas to “extremist Israeli settlers” who are undermining the security of the West Bank. Whether these officials are direct descendants of those who opposed recognition of the State of Israel in 1948 is not known. The immediacy of the administration’s response to the need to rein in these Israeli “extremists”, who have no desire to cross our border, contrasts sharply with its lagged response to the threat posed by thousands of “known getaways” who have done just that, some dressed in military camouflage, some photographed carrying AK-47s as they slip into the country.
America the Oil King
When the year opened, we worried that OPEC would cut production and put upward pressure on crude oil and, by extension, petrol prices. As the year ended, OPEC is worried that America will further increase its record oil production – 13 million barrels per day compared with the Saudi’s restricted output of 9 mbd – and put downward pressure on prices.
The Great Equalizers, Then And Now
About 200 years ago Sam Colt’s invention, a small hand-gun capable of six shots without reloading, was dubbed the great equalizer, making little guys equal to big guys, women equal to men. This generation’s lab-grown diamonds may be the new great equalizer, blurring the distinction between rich and poor. The diamonds that were only a rich or, er, talented girl’s best friend whether square-cut or pear-shaped now have become more accessible to the masses to the consternation of the world’s largest producer of mined diamonds, Putin’s Russia.
A “lab-grown” one-carat solitaire diamond can be bought for about $1,000, compared with $4,000 for a natural stone (the words “synthetic” and “fake” have fallen from favor) according to an Axios survey of retailers, with some surveys putting the difference at less than that. Even a low-rolling guy can enter a Vegas casino with a diamond bedecked doll. Just don’t let anyone who knows a Russian mine from an American, Chinese, Indian or Israeli lab get too close despite claims from such as jewelry designer
Jean Dousset, that “Technology and the human imagination have been able to replicate nature perfectly.” Dousset is the great-great grandson of Louis Cartier, who might have appeared as a vengeful ghost of Christmases past last week to haunt Dousset.
Finally, Americans Decide What Interests Them
An analysis of Google trends by Axios reveals the topics that “stayed top-of-mind” for most Americans in 2023.
Taylor Swift drew more media interest than any other person, topic or event, whether the news was about her tour, albums and films, or her relationship with Kansas City Chief star Travis Kelce. Trump came in second, Ukraine third and President Biden fourth.
*Cartoon by Nicola Jennings