Memorable reads of the week 1
Post Series: Memorable reads of the week
I intended this series to share with you which articles I’ve read throughout the past week. Specifically, which ones I found amazing or interesting and that help me improve my understanding on finance, the economy and how I can improve myself to reach FIRE.
In case I can’t provide my favorites I will skip that week and provide a more elaborate summary or overview the week after.
The news articles, features or columns shared here will, most of the time, come from two newspapers I’m subscribed to:
I do try to get more international news articles as well. These will come from the following news providers:
Note I chose the above international papers based on the community rating of allsides.com. Allsides considers the newspapers unbiased, based on numerous votes from the Allsides visitors.
As mentioned, the majority of my favorite features will come from the Dutch papers. These articles can be behind a paywall. If that is the case I will still provide a summary of what the article is about and why I was interested in reading it.
With the introduction out of the way, let’s get into my first amazing articles of the week.
My amazing articles
Without the Chinese, Delvaux wouldn't exist anymore today
Original source: Windels, V. (2018, September 17). Zonder de Chinezen bestond Delvaux vandaag niet meer. De Standaard.
I this article interesting because it shows a couple of things:
- Delvaux wasn’t that well known outside of Belgium
- They considered their prices to be too low and only now are they priced correctly (i.e., more expensive for the same good)
- The Chinese company bought Delvaux in 2011
It’s point two that I found striking. The price of their goods increased to be more appealing to their target audience.
Everyone wants a second hand Tesla
Original source: Vanbrussel, E. (2018, September 18). Iedereen wil een tweedehands Tesla. De Tijd, p. 15.
Did you also think the title was “clickbaity”? Yeah, me too. Regardless of the title, the content itself was pretty interesting.
The article starts by stating Teslas surprisingly don’t lose their value as much as the German brands.
From the title, you can already anticipate why that is. The demand is higher than the supply (in Belgium).
The reason for the high demand seems to be because wannabe Tesla owners can’t wait for the Model 3 that is still months, if not years away. Instead of waiting for the Model 3 to become available, potential Tesla buyers look for secondhand Model S’. There is also a problem with the supply side. There are just not that many secondhand S models available.
Alibaba's Jack Ma says U.S.-China trade war ends 1 million U.S. jobs promise: Xinhua
Original source: Reuters (2018). Alibaba’s Jack Ma says U.S.-China trade war ends 1 million U.S. jobs promise: Xinhua. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-alibaba/alibabas-jack-ma-goes-back-on-promise-to-create-one-million-u-s-jobs-xinhua-idUSKCN1LZ2KH
This article piqued my interested because I distinctly remember how at the beginning of 2017 Ma reportedly called Trump “smart” and “open-minded.”(Reuters) after their talk about bringing jobs to the States.
When I read that now, given these new developments, I can’t help but wonder: did Trump already had a trade war in his mind while talking to Ma? It’s really interesting to see all of this unfold in real time and being able to just look up what was said and “promised” earlier.
The first reports of Trump’s “attack” on China started in January of this year with tariffs on solar panels, so about a year after their talk.
I don’t have any strong opinion about this recent development because Europe luckily doesn’t get the full brunt of Trump’s “attack”.
I’m pretty skeptical about one thing. Ma’s statement on this trade war. he said this war “could last decades”. I find that highly unlikely. Never say never of course but 20 years and more is a long time.
These were my three memorable articles of the past week.
Do you have anything that you want to share? Leave a comment with a link or a summary and why you find it interesting.
