Today’s post title comes from a classic book about Wall Street greed written in 1940 by Fred Schwed. The story goes that a broker was giving a client a tour of the NYC marina, pointing out all the yachts berthed there. “This is our CEO’s yacht, that’s our sales manager’s boat and that one over there belongs to the head of a competing firm”, and so on and so forth. Finally, the client turns around and asks “So, tell me, where are the customers’ yachts?”
I was reminded of this book by the photo below showing two yachts side by side. One is a 26m “run of the mill” motor yacht typically owned by the mere “rich” and the behemoth behind it is Solaris, a mega yacht owned by Roman Abramovich. For further perspective, the second photo shows Corsair II, a yacht built in 1892 for JP Morgan. Draw your own conclusions on socio-economics.
Rich vs. Ultra Rich Today
The Ultra Rich 130 Years Ago
For reference, Corsair II displaced around 800 tons, today’s typical 26 m yacht comes in at around 200 tons (it’s mostly light fiberglass), while Solaris tips the scales at 11.200 GRT. Yup, money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure helps!
And while on the subject of ships, here’s a chart of container shipping rates. They have now completely retraced their crazy spike, yet another sign that the REAL global economy is cooling fast. I’m betting there are several shipowners out there who are starting to sweat.
Freightos Container Index
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