What even is a Litecoin

Quote of the Day

To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?”

Market Snapshot

• The Dow and S&P finished slightly higher as the Fed began its two-day meeting.
• It looks like the Fed could be gearing up for two rate hikes in 2018.
• The U.S. government’s deficit rose to $139 billion from $137 billion last year.
• Litecoin hit $370 and Ethereum reached $630.

Unibail-Rodamco Goes “Mall-In” on Westfield

Who said malls were dying?

Not European mall giant Unibail-Rodamco, which is paying $15.7 billion for fellow landlord Westfield Group. And with Westfield’s $21.2 billion real estate portfolio and 33 shopping centers, Unibail-Rodamco now finds itself on top of the global mall food chain...just ahead of Auntie Anne’s.

But is that a good thing?

No doubt retail is in a bind, as Amazon squeezes brick-and-mortar chains like a boa constrictor. Sears and Macy’s closed hundreds of stores, Toys “R” Us filed for Chapter 11...you know the drill.

So with all the carnage, it’s worth asking why Unibail-Rodamco would want to take more mall properties under its wing.

Well, here’s your answer:

Westfield has been navigating the rocky landscape better than most

The Australian mall owner followed the 21st century retail playbook: shed malls in lower-income, rural areas to focus on the gleaming temples of materialism in wealthy urban centers.

To that end, it’s slashed its real estate portfolio in half since 2004, dumping most of its midwestern U.S. properties and sprucing up its higher-end “flagship” locations like the $1.4 billion World Trade Center in NYC and Century City in LA.

But that’s only half the battle. These days, grabbing a new pair of jeans just isn’t worth juking kiosk hawkers trying to sell you a used fidget spinner. A mall needs to pair shopping with other experiences like a gym or movie theater. So in its San Diego location, Westfield poured $585 million into an event space, offices, and dining.

These kinds of investments had Unibail ready to deal

Already Europe’s largest commercial landlord, with landmark properties like the Forum des Halles in Paris (150,000 daily visitors), Unibail has to be excited to plant its flag in the shopping meccas of the U.K. and the U.S.

At this point, it’s piloting the ship. The only remaining question is, can it steer clear of Amazon-infested waters?

Saudi Aramco’s Pumping More Into Oil

Got oil? Saudi Aramco does.

And now the world’s largest producer of oil (12 million barrels a day) is investing $40 billion a year into operations over the next decade. That’s 25% more than it originally intended. Looks like Aramco’s priming the pump for its $1 trillion IPO—the world’s largest.

The oil giant is injecting the funds into drilling, well services, and offshore oil fields. A decision that could boost world supply and...

...wait a second.

Didn’t Saudi Arabia just lead an OPEC meeting where 24 countries agreed to cumulatively cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (2% of the world’s exports) because of historically low oil prices?

And didn’t oil finally rebound to two-year highs of $65 after its crash from $100 in 2014?

Aramco suggests the updated plan is merely to maintain its current production level, because the original budget wasn’t cutting it. Our best guess is the summer analyst must’ve crunched the numbers wrong.

But that might not do much to ease concerns of oversupply: Aramco has 261 billion barrels sitting in inventory, compared to Exxon’s inventory of 13.2 billion.

If Aramco doesn’t watch its weight, OPEC might need to call another huddle up. Better for us gas guzzlers, at least.

Facebook Ends Its Irish Honeymoon

It’s an announcement that makes you do a double-take: Facebook (-1.16%) said it’ll begin paying taxes in countries where it recorded ad revenue.

Woah there...actually paying taxes where you’re supposed to? What was it doing before?

Like other American companies doing business overseas, Zuck and Co. take advantage of a generous Irish tax structure in which profits from around the world are funneled into its HQ in Dublin. The loophole is called the “double Irish,” which turns out to be different than what we imagined.

And Facebook is going to miss it. Back in 2014, it paid a whopping $5,763 in taxes to the U.K. As you can imagine, the Brits found this bloody ridiculous and forced Facebook to declare more realistic profits.

Now other countries might be lining up to pick more of Zuck’s pockets. While most of its user base lies outside the U.S., Facebook’s home country and Canada bankroll the company, accounting for $4.9 billion in revenue last quarter. Next in line is Europe ($2.4 billion), Asia-Pac ($1.8 billion), and everyone else ($1 billion).

What Else Is Happening…

• Comcast (+2.78%) dropped out of talks for part of 21st Century Fox’s (+1.31%) business.
• Instagram is now letting you follow hashtags for content discovery.
• YouTube TV is now in 83 U.S. markets.
• Five ex-NFL players were fired from NFL TV, ESPN, and The Ringer following sexual harassment allegations.

Economic Calendar

• Monday     Earnings: No Events

                    Economic Events: JOLTS (-)

• Tuesday    Earnings: No Events

                  Economic Events: No Events

• Wednesday    Earnings: Pier 1 Imports, Progressive

                        Economic Events: FOMC Meeting Announcement

• Thursday   Earnings: Costco, Oracle

                   Economic Events: Jobless Claims

• Friday       Earnings: No Events

                 

Brewified Term: Litecoin

By now, you’ve already downloaded Coinbase and tattooed your private key to your forehead...which was only topped by your newborn uttering “blockchain” as his first words.

So we decided to keep the good times going with a look at a coin that’s been somewhat late to the party, but has been making waves (up 200% to ~$370) as of the last 48 hours: Litecoin.

So what is Litecoin? And is it better than Bitcoin?

Litecoin’s just like any other decentralized cryptocurrency that runs on a public ledger (aka a blockchain). There are arguments for whether it is better or worse than Bitcoin, but what we can tell you is...

There are three major differences:

* Transaction speed: Bitcoin transactions can be mined (verified by creating a new block on the ledger) every 10 minutes. Litecoin? 2.5 minutes.
* Ease of mining: Bitcoin might be slower, but the technology for solving transactions (which consists of answering a series of complex math problems) is a lot more widespread. Here’s a little more on that.
* Number of coins: Because Litecoins can be verified 4x faster, it means more coin creation (miners get paid in newly issued coins everytime they verify a transaction). While Bitcoin will cap at 21 million coins, Litecoin will reach 84 million coins.

Here’s the takeaway—Litecoin’s faster transaction speed is inherently more scalable with cryptocurrency adoption spreading like a virus. But as of now, the mining infrastructure isn’t as widespread as it is for Bitcoin, which is why it got off to a slow start.

Until these past few days...

We can’t say for sure what prompted the overnight uptick in Litecoin. Maybe it’s the psychological barrier of spending $17,000 a Bitcoin, but still wanting to get in on the crypto craze.

All we can say is this: before you start swapping out your child’s college fund for a few dozen Litecoin, heed the words of Charlie Lee—ex-Google engineer and creator of Litecoin, “Sorry to spoil the party, but I need to reign in the excitement a bit…Buying LTC is extremely risky. I expect us to have a multi-year bear market like the one we just had where LTC dropped 90% in value ($48 to $4). So if you can’t handle LTC dropping to $20, don’t buy.”

The Breakroom

What is the number pattern?
31, 59, 90, 120, 151, 181, 212, 243, 273, 304, 334, 365

(Answer located at the bottom of newsletter)

Business Trivia

Which state has the lowest property tax as a percentage of home value?

(Answer located at the bottom of newsletter)

Stat of the Day

25%—Bitcoin trading volume accounted for by South Korea investors last week. At the time, it was a higher percentage than the U.S.

Remember, South Korea’s population is 50 million vs. the U.S.’ pop of 323 million.

Breakroom Answers

Question of the Day: The pattern is the days of the year by month, starting from January going to December. (Explanation)

Business Trivia: Hawaii