What a start to the work week for the UK! Like Anwar, I suppose Cameron got a second act, announced in the most British way possible, and Braverman got what was coming to her. WeWork files for bankruptcy, but the Singapore entity seems fine, for now. Both Hollywood strikes have officially ended, with the strikers winning more than they lost. Also, the Nord Stream plot thickens…
To wait a decade is not too late
… for revenge, as the Chinese saying goes. Having been a renter all my adult life, with scant hope of owning property in Singapore, reading about sticking it to the other side brings a certain schadenfreude. I hasten to add, of course, that I am not against ownership of single residential or holiday properties.
Funny Money
We spent the long Deepavali weekend in Johor Bahru, the town of currency arbitrage for Singaporeans, where going out to eat and getting hair and nails done is considered a good time. The cost of living crisis really sucks for lower-income Malaysians, and whilst their government’s decision to allow them to draw on the funds in their compulsory pension scheme was shortsighted, I can understand why many feel desperate. “What goes up may not come down. Like, ever.” Scary thought.
The Write Market
I’ve highlighted news and essays about books and the publishing industry over the past few months, as I have a vested interest as co-owner of a (dormant for now) publishing company, and the history of writing is the history of humanity, after all.
Esquire enquires about the future of books, but given the recent tell-all by Copeland on Dalio’s Bridgewater, I think there’ll always be a market.
Shine bright like a diamond
Speaking of the lessons Hollywood had to learn, Netflix is one of them. Fly close to the sun, sure, but the way down will be way more painful than the way up. But it’s just commerce, isn’t it, with a side of truly abhorrent organisational culture worthy of a Netflix special itself.