Jamie made her first trip to London last week. She visited Big Ben and Westminster, had dinner in Mayfair, enjoyed Regents and Hyde parks and visited the London Business School! In doing so, she figured out why everyone tells us London is such an expensive place to live. After living in NYC and San Francisco, surely we're accustom to the "expensive" city lifestyle, right? Wrong.
Items in London cost the same as in San Francisco. A venti Starbucks coffee: 1.75, a cab ride from the City to the airport: 40, lunch at a Thai restaurant: 10. However, instead of having a "$" symbol in front of the number it's a "£". Ah, the exchange rate. Today, $1 will fetch about £0.50. That means, in London, a venti Starbucks coffee costs $3.50, a cab ride to the airport runs $80 and that simple Thai lunch is $20! Now I'm beginning to see why so many people warned us about the cost of living in such a great city!
In case you're wondering, only one city beats London in this year's list of the world's most expensive cities (as compiled by Mercer). Surprisingly, San Francisco didn't even break the top 20!
1. Moscow
2. London
3. Seoul
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Copenhagen
7. Geneva
8. Osaka
9. Zurich
10. Oslo
11. Milan
12. St. Petersburg (Russia)
13. Paris
14. Singapore
15. New York City
16. Dublin
17. Tel Aviv
18. Rome
19. Vienna
20. Beijing
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
The Sage's 31st Letter
Last week, Warren Buffett provided his 31st letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Buffett's first letter, written in 1977, two years before I was born, described a company with operating earnings of $21.9 million and an investment portfolio worth $181 million. In 2007, Berkshire provided $20.2 billion of operating earnings and held an investment portfolio worth $75 billion. Not bad, Mr. Buffett.
Buffett's annual letters are insightful and relevant, and I encourage anyone interested in business, investing, or just a good 20 minute read to download the most recent report here.
One interesting story in this year's letter describes the outcome of Berkshire's investment in PetroChina, the Chinese oil and gas company. In 2002/2003, Berkshire invested $488 million in the company and in 2007 sold it's stake for $4 billion. Again, not a bad job. But, with heafty gains come heafty taxes. Berkshire paid the IRS $1.2 billion in taxes on this gain, which paid ALL costs of running the U.S. government for about four hours. Wow.
Buffett's annual letters are insightful and relevant, and I encourage anyone interested in business, investing, or just a good 20 minute read to download the most recent report here.
One interesting story in this year's letter describes the outcome of Berkshire's investment in PetroChina, the Chinese oil and gas company. In 2002/2003, Berkshire invested $488 million in the company and in 2007 sold it's stake for $4 billion. Again, not a bad job. But, with heafty gains come heafty taxes. Berkshire paid the IRS $1.2 billion in taxes on this gain, which paid ALL costs of running the U.S. government for about four hours. Wow.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Goldman Gets It
Today, Goldman Sachs announced one of the largest philanthropic initiatives of any Wall Street firm. The program, called "10,000 Women", aims to raise $100 million for women running small businesses in developing countries. Goldman's money will be used to train these women in areas such as marketing, e-commerce and accounting.
So why such an effort for this specific demographic? Goldman research indicates that closing the gender gap in employment in key emerging markets could lift per capita income 10-14% above baseline forecasts by 2020.
Hopefully you noticed the link to Camfed at the bottom of my blog. Camfed supports the education and development of young women in rural Africa, and Goldman named Camfed one of their key partners for this new initiative. After spending time in rural areas of Kenya, seeing first hand how children cope with poverty and lousy living conditions, I immediately connected with Camfed's cause, and it's great to see such a meaningful commitment from Goldman.
Check out www.camfed.org, you'll find it really interesting. Meanwhile, props to Goldman for putting up a bunch of money for a great cause. However, just to put it in perspective, $100 million represents 0.5% of Goldman's 2007 compensation expense.
So why such an effort for this specific demographic? Goldman research indicates that closing the gender gap in employment in key emerging markets could lift per capita income 10-14% above baseline forecasts by 2020.
Hopefully you noticed the link to Camfed at the bottom of my blog. Camfed supports the education and development of young women in rural Africa, and Goldman named Camfed one of their key partners for this new initiative. After spending time in rural areas of Kenya, seeing first hand how children cope with poverty and lousy living conditions, I immediately connected with Camfed's cause, and it's great to see such a meaningful commitment from Goldman.
Check out www.camfed.org, you'll find it really interesting. Meanwhile, props to Goldman for putting up a bunch of money for a great cause. However, just to put it in perspective, $100 million represents 0.5% of Goldman's 2007 compensation expense.
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