“The argument for matching debt structure (maturity, currency, convertibility) to asset characteristics is not rocket-science but corporations around the world seem to revel in mismatching debt and assets, using short term debt to fund long term assets (or vice versa) and sometimes debt in one currency to fund projects that generate cashflows in another.”
“Meanwhile, as citizens scramble to keep their inanimate objects alive, the local authorities are complicit in this patchwork arrangement, taking payments from the gray-market generator operators and perpetuating a nation’s struggle to stay wired.”
“Bridge has its origins in trick taking games (such as whist) which date back to the early 16th century, although the earliest rulebook for something resembling modern bridge is dated 1886, and calls it ‘biritch or Russian whist’. It’s popularity grew in the US and the UK in the 1890s, and in 1925 a variant of the basic game developed by railroad tycoon Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (and others) called contract bridge was introduced. This form so completely replaced other forms of the game that the name bridge is now synonymous with contract bridge.”
“In 1795, due to problems in obtaining payment for another project, Latrobe was faced with severe financial problems. When his wife, Lydia Sellon, having died in childbirth in November 1793, he is thought to have suffered a breakdown. Declared bankrupt and unable to pay some of his workmen, he emigrated to America on 25 November 1795.[12] There is some doubt over whether Hammerwood was finished by this point; it is possible that the Sperlings supervised its completion in Latrobe’s absence. However, the failure of a large investment in a Dublin distillery led the Sperlings to lose £70,000 (equivalent to approximately £7.5 million in 2015 pounds)”
“Combining Yelp and American Community Survey (ACS) data, we explore this potential and find that entry of Starbucks (and cafes more generally) into a neighborhood is in fact indicative of housing price growth across the United States. The number of reviews of Starbucks increases predictive power, suggesting that gentrifying neighborhoods might also attract more reviewers. We then turn to three demographic measures of neighborhood change in New York City based on ACS at the Census Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) level: percent with a college degree, percent aged between 25 and 34, and percent white. We find that growth in groceries, laundromats, bars, and cafes are particularly good predictors of increases in the share of college educated within an area.”