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- How currencies got their names? Living at Goldman Sach’s, Cards Against Humanity takes on Space X, AI 2041: Ten Visions of our Future
How currencies got their names? Living at Goldman Sach’s, Cards Against Humanity takes on Space X, AI 2041: Ten Visions of our Future
Sam Perera
September 27, 2024 • Reading Time: 10 minutes
Greetings Folks and a warm welcome to the 11TH Edition of Friday Finance Weekly. My apologizes, as I really stretched the ‘weekly-ish’ timeline. The real estate debt markets continue to affect my mood, but with decreasing interest rates, the tone should be more upbeat.
I’ve started a section on history’s greatest panics, and one that stands out is the Anti-Arcade (yes you read that right) Initiative. New York, 1952 – Gripped by anti-gambling mania, New York City Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia outlawed pinball. He ordered police to raid arcades and seize thousands of machines, personally smashing several with a sledgehammer before having them dumped in the sea. (Source: Reddit – u/No-Artist-9597)
Let’s get right into it — this is a longer edition, just in time for the long weekend.
Have you ever been curious as to how currencies have been named? Well let me help you out –
Currency | Background |
|---|---|
Dinar | Traces to the ancient Roman denarius coin, which meant “containing ten” because it was worth ten bronze coins. |
Dollar | A shortening of German Joachimstaler, the name of a coin minted in the Bohemian town of Sankt Joachimsthal. Our of the whole list, the Dollar confuses me the most, how did they get Dollar from Joachimsthal (I can’t even say it). |
French Franc | From the Medieval Latin phrase Francorum Rex, or “king of the Franks,” which was inscribed on French coins in the 14th century. |
Krona | Literally means “crown” in Swedish, because crowns are stamped onto the coins. Same in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Czechia. |
Lira | Traces back to the Latin word libra, which meant “pound” and was the monetary system during the Roman Empire. |
Naira | Simply a contraction of the word “Nigeria” coined by Yoruba nationalist and Nigerian statesman Obafemi Awolowo. |
Peso | Means “weight” in Spanish. The word used to refer to Spanish pieces of eight, which were issued with a consistent weight. |
Pound Sterling | Sterling meant “little star,” in reference to the stars that appeared on Anglo-Saxon coins which were measured out in pounds. |
Rand | Named after Witwatersrand, the ridge where most of South Africa’s gold deposits were found. |
Real | The term means “royal” in Portuguese and was borrowed from a Portuguese currency previously used in Brazil. |
Renminbi | A Communist term coming from the Mandarin words renmin, meaning “people,” and bi, meaning “currency.” |
Ruble | Thought to be from Old Russian rubiti, meaning “to cut,” because early coins were made by cutting pieces off silver bars. |
Rupee | From the Sanskrit word rupiah, meaning “wrought silver.” As an adjective, it meant “shapely” or “stamped.” |
Shekel | From Hebrew saqal, meaning “weigh,” because it was originally a unit of measurement roughly around 11 grams. |
Taka | Comes from the Sanskrit word tanka, which described a denomination of silver coin used in ancient times. |
Yen | Means “round object,” in reference to the shape of the coins. Also a cognate of Chinese yuan and Korean won. |
Sadly many of the currencies above how now been replaced by the Euro. Interestingly the ancient word for urine in Greece, was ‘ouron’. Hmm, wonder if that how the Euro was named? I know its not really news but refreshment for a curious mind. Let’s get more serious. (Source: Adam Aleksic, Instagram: @etymologynerd)
Starting next Monday, New Yorkers will be able to lease an apartment in the former Goldman Sachs Headquarters located at 55 Broad Street. Last year, after struggling to attract commercial tenants, the nearly 60-year-old tower was purchased by Metro Loft Development and Silverstein Properties for $173M ($393 PSF).
The office-to-residential conversion of this 440,000-square foot building will result in 571 apartments, with each unit boasting 10-foot ceilings, water views, and custom Italian kitchens, in addition to top-tier building amenities. Studio apartments will start at $4,000 per month, while three-bedroom units will be listed for around $10,000. Although the exact conversion cost is unknown, one Metro Loft executive indicated that similar projects typically cost up to $375 per square foot, which is roughly 60% of the cost of building from new, not including pre-development costs like permitting.
These types of conversion projects are expected to become increasingly popular, as the city and state continue to seek ways of combating their affordable housing shortage. Incentives like tax abatements and accelerated approvals are already being offered to encourage new development in the city and Metro Loft hopes to take advantage of both. To be clear this is in New York City; here in Vancouver we recently got rid of view cones to help with the housing shortage. I mean, imagine all the housing that will flood the market after they got rid of view cones! (Source: Bloomberg)
The long weekend is coming up and I am sure some of you will be playing Cards Against Humanity (CAH), the card game that exposes your inner true self — like the opposite of meditation. In 2017 CAH purchased vacant land along the US-Mexico border for approximately $2.25M. The acquisition was completed using crowdfunded proceeds consisting of $15 donations from roughly 150,000 individuals. According to CAH, the intended purpose of the acquisition was to make it “as time-consuming and expensive as possible for (Trump’s) wall to get built,” while pledging to keep the land in its natural state.
Late last week, CAH filed a $15 million civil lawsuit against Elon Musk’s SpaceX over alleged trespassing on the subject lot. In its lawsuit, CAH claims that SpaceX began encroaching on the property, without permission, and that the company has been using the land as a dumping site for equipment and building materials from a nearby production facility. If successful, CAH has said it intends to split the settlement proceeds among the original donors, resulting in approximately $100 per individual. Considering this all started with a publicity stunt intended to anger the president, the near 700% ROI is quite impressive. Also can you imagine, trying to cross into the border illegally and then ending up in space? I found the idea for my next movie. (Source: Yahoo Finance, Morning Brew).
This week’s book summary is AI 2041: Ten Visions for our Future, by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Quifan.
How will technology shape our lives 20 years from now? Experts are split, with some believing that cutting-edge technology is Prometheus’s fire, while others see a closer resemblance to Pandora’s box.
For decades, progress in the field of AI was limited by access to vast amounts of data and computing power. These obstacles disappeared when the Internet facilitated deep learning, which is the ability for AI to train itself. Fields like trading, social media, and insurance are now ripe for disruption, as these possess quantifiable business metrics and vast amounts of data. The underlying issue is that entrepreneurs’ and investors’ interests seldom align with the public’s. Is it even possible to assign complex goals to AI that will balance profitability with the wellness of end-users?
In the future, the Internet of Things will provide AI models with another source of information. Everyday household items like your toothbrush or mattress will aggregate our health data which will enable technology to learn from actual cases. Experts believe that the digitization of our medical history, along with access to real-time health data, will allow AI to become sufficiently advanced to diagnose and consult patients, leaving human doctors to focus on providing empathetic explanations. For this to become a reality, this process will require humans to provide their data. This, in turn, raises another key concern: what is the trade-off between privacy and comfort?
Some inventions, such as autonomous vehicles, will require more time to implement safely. Collecting data on driving is difficult given the countless variables at play (i.e., road conditions, weather, vehicle, etc.). Additionally, questions like who will be responsible for accidents caused by AI remain unanswered. One potential solution for preventing accidents is for city planners to isolate paths for AVs and pedestrians, while adding road sensors to improve safety.
With autonomous vehicles, the risks associated with AI are outweighed by its potential benefit (i.e., lower costs, lower emissions, and greater safety). With autonomous weapons, however, the risk-reward trade-off is far less compelling, since AI does not consider the outcomes of its decisions. The solution in this case seems simple: institute an outright ban on autonomous weapons systems. All countries have agreed to this, except for Russia, the UK, and the USA.
One expert believes that machines will replace human employees in over a third of professions by the beginning of the 2030s. As more people work remotely, their duties and communication will become increasingly digitized, allowing AI to learn new tasks and thereby jeopardizing more professions. The jobs that are most at risk involve high levels of repetition and/or analytical skills. Warehouse pickers, loan underwriters, and hiring managers are among the many fields considered low-hanging fruit. Conversely, the jobs which are least at risk are ones which require untrainable skills, like inventiveness, dexterity, and empathy. Preventing this fate may require bold and highly progressive solutions, like retraining workers from endangered fields for free and the introduction of universal basic income.
Technology can be a companion that makes our lives easier or a tool for our control. As customers, clients, and voters, we have the power to wield our influence to ensure that AI aligns with our interests. Crucially, our ability to stand up for our interests lies in our understanding of the technology and its potential impacts. While in the past, such knowledge would earn you the label of “geek”, today it signifies a responsible citizen.
A third of the population, potentially being unemployed will become a huge geopolitical issue. Most countries that are war torn have high amounts of youth employment. High unemployment leads to boredom and that has unintended consequences, such as resentment. I think it’s obvious that we will eventually get to some form of universal basic income. To make sure its fair and rigorously monitored, we should get the same politicians that gave out COVID grants and approved the ArrivCan app to be in charge.
Have a fantastic long weekend and please don’t hesitate to forward this email to friends and family.
Many thanks,
Sam