- The Idea Farm
- Posts
- 7/28
7/28
The Idea Farm
July 28, 2024
Together With
“The work of Wall Street often is to introduce people who should not borrow to people who should not lend.”
Research
Vanguard - How America Saves 2024 (114 pages)
Vanguard’s annual report analyzes retirement account trends across plan type, demographics, allocations and more.
This annual report covers the record year for energy in terms of both production and consumption, providing overviews of different energy sources - oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, electric & more.
Facts & Figures
There are ~7,000 zombie companies around the world, 2,000 of which are in the U.S. Link
Almost half of VC investments in Q2 were in AI-related startups. Link
a16z has secured thousands of AI chips to rent to portfolio companies, and hopes to get up to 20,000 chips. Link
20 years after the electric light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879, just 3% of US households had electricity. Link
“A young man was seen doing push-ups on Park Avenue’s sidewalk Thursday (June 27, 2024), sweating through his dress clothes with the sun overhead. Asked what was happening, he said he was being punished by his boss for screwing up a pitch deck.” Link
Inflation by category since January 2000.
S&P 500 vs. S&P 500 equal weight since 1985.
The performance of high and low price-to-book stocks during the 1970’s.
Source: Tactical Wealth Management
“The S&P 500 has become more highly concentrated in technology and financial stocks … and more correlated with other indexes around the world.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal. As of July 3, 2024
Where Sophisticated Investors Access Private Markets
10 East is a co-investment platform where sophisticated investors access private market investments alongside a veteran team with a decade+ track record of strong performance. The firm is led by Michael Leffell, former Deputy Executive Managing Member of Davidson Kempner.
Members have the flexibility to participate on a deal-by-deal basis across private equity, credit, real estate, and venture capital.
Benefits of 10 East membership include:
Flexibility – members have full discretion over whether to invest on an offering-by-offering basis.
Alignment – principals commit material personal capital to every offering.
Institutional resources – a dedicated investment team that sources and diligences each offering.
There are no upfront costs or commitments associated with signing up and checking out the platform.
Idea Farm readers can join 10 East with complimentary access here.
Podcasts
 7/12/24 - 47 minutes | Van Geelen once again joins Odd Lots to talk about investing in macro themes like GLP-1, AI, water & the upcoming U.S. election. |
 6/24/24 - 50 minutes | Janous discusses the rapid buildout of AI data centers, the introduction of more intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar, and the challenges inherent in trying to update and expand such a complex system. |
 7/16/24 - 28 minutes | This episode covers the recent Goldman Sachs paper, which says the hype around GenAI is overdone. |
What Else Is Happening
Did you miss last week’s email?
Meb Faber spoke with BlackRock's Kate Moore about the macro environment, state of the equity market, and the impact of AI.
Deal of the Week
YCharts just published their latest release of their Top 10 Visuals resource deck with fresh data. Download it for free here.*
P.S. - New users of YCharts Professional receive 20% off their subscription.*