Monthly Archives: May 2014

Humanity

See the Modern Side of Madrid

Splurge on a sophisticated stay at the Only You Hotel & Lounge Madrid (from $222), located in the stylish, gay-friendly neighborhood of Chueca. Housed in a 19th century palace, the 70-room hotel feels plucked from some Grecian shore, with crisp white and deep blue color accents throughout, from the room walls to the original floor tiles from 1862. Treat yourself to room 416 (from $307), an airy, loft-style setup with exposed beams, an oversize vintage map of Madrid standing in for shower doors, and a spiral staircase leading to your sleeping quarters. If you can pry yourself out of your room, pop down to the hotel’s GastroBar, helmed by celebrated chef Carlos Martin, for refined Spanish tapas like crispy artichokes with Parmigiano Reggiano ($12.29), followed by a gin and tonic ($17.75, all the rage in Madrid right now) sipped alongside international jet setters among the navy-velvet-walled lounge, Salón Azul. From NYMAG

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Politics

Food Price Watch, May 2014

The May 2014 Issue of Food Price Watch finds that international prices of food increased by 4% between January and April 2014, putting an end to the declining trend of food prices sustained since August 2012. The thematic section of this report discusses the role that food prices and food shortages may have on food riots, a term widely used but poorly defined, and partially reflecting decades of overlooking the food-to-conflict nexus.

World Bank Global Food Price Index

Read the report from The World Bank

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Character

Mark Cuban, Post-Sterling, on Combating Racism: ‘We All Have Our Bigotry’

For Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, recognizing internal prejudices is the first step to overcoming them. Inc. 

Mark Cuban found himself on the sidelines of controversy last month, when the NBA banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life over racist comments. Now in a video interview with Inc., Cuban weighs in on what he does to combat the bigotry and racism he comes across as a manager and an owner…

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Business

The Housing Bubble Goes Global – The New Yorker

The most expensive housing market in North America is not where you’d think. It’s not New York City or Orange County, California, but Vancouver, British Columbia. Now, Vancouver is a beautiful city—a thriving deep-water port, a popular site for TV and movie shoots. By all accounts, it is a wonderful place to live. But nothing about its economy explains why—in a city where the median income is only around seventy grand—single-family houses now sell for close to a million dollars apiece and ordinary condos go for five or six hundred thousand dollars. “If you look at per-capita incomes, we look like Reno or Nashville,” Andy Yan, an urban planner at the Vancouver-based firm Bing Thom Architects, told me. “But our housing prices easily compete with San Francisco’s.” …From The New Yorker

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Business

Why Is SkyBridge Capital Successful?

SkyBridge Capital’s Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager, Troy Gayeski, sat down with Benzinga to discuss the hedge fund-of-fund’s profound success in recent years.

The  SkyBridge Alternatives conference (SALT) took place in Las Vegas earlier in May.

SkyBridge outperformed the HFRI hedge fund index for the last seven years and this year is no exception. Returning just shy of four percent year-to-date, SkyBridge is still leading the way, outperforming the hedge fund index’s 0.38 percent gain. More to read.

 

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