While Brussels Watched the Ketchup
Gold takes the reserve crown, Iran charges yuan in the Strait, Thiel's building his Uruguay fortress, Zuck's running layoffs from his $300 million yacht, and we're prepping for Spain.
Quick thank-you before we get into it. The response to last week’s AI piece — the comments, the pledges, the people who reached out privately — has been more than I can fully process. I’m doing my best to reply individually. In case I missed you: thank you, genuinely.
Now to the week. Gold dethroned U.S. Treasuries as the world's #1 reserve asset — central banks now hold gold at 27% of reserves vs. 22% for Treasuries, the highest gold share since Bretton Woods. Speaking of the U.S., data center construction just surpassed office construction for the first time: $50 billion vs. $43 billion and shrinking. It's also eclipsed spending on public transportation infrastructure.
In short, the AI buildout is eating everything else. Meanwhile, the people building all of it are visibly making their own arrangements: Peter Thiel is putting up a $10 million reinforced private residence in Uruguay, and Mark Zuckerberg fired 8,000 Meta employees by email while reportedly aboard his $300 million super yacht in the Mediterranean.
Over in the Persian Gulf, Iran is now charging yuan-denominated transit tolls on tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, taking a serious bite out of the petrodollar.
And in Europe, a story making the rounds last week was Brussels’ upcoming ban on single-use ketchup packets (set to come into effect in August). It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. The old continent has collapsing demographics, the world’s highest energy prices, economies on life support, and zero meaningful innovation. But at least come August, no one will have to suffer the indignity of opening a disposable condiment sachet ever again. Thank god the eurocrats are diligently watching over us.
Speaking of Europe, we’re in the early stages of prepping for our annual summer in Spain. Running checks on the car (it’s a road trip), mapping the route, the usual logistics. The idea is to send the kids to summer school there for the month — improve their Spanish, get them off the screens, give them something real to do. Some parents I know think that’s borderline cruel — sending kids to “school” during summer break — but it’s one month, four hours a day, and the rest of the time we’re a family on the road together. Road trips bring families closer than anything else I’ve found.
And now for the latest pieces…
From the Comments
One of the things I’ve come to appreciate most about writing here is the conversation that happens in the comments. The thinking that shows up there often sharpens my own, and adds dimensions I’d never have thought to include. With that in mind, here are four reader observations from last week that stuck with me:
Thanks again to everyone who left a comment last week. I read all of them, even the ones I don't get a chance to reply to individually. Over the coming days, I'll try to catch up on the questions and the longer threads.
See you in the comments this week.
Regards,
Lau Vegys
Nothing cruel about it, being from South Africa , we’ve sent our little girl to an Italian nursery school, in Moscow for 6 weeks.
sounds rough