Further adventures of the rich and the super-rich

Plus: Russia should've known this was coming and more [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a seasonal selection of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Must-Reads - China’s [flushing out coal]( for now. - The danger in [Google’s AI phones](. - Tick, tick, [boom]( - New Zealand finally [gets a cut](. - Zen and the art of [picking a football team](. Problems of the >1% Sometimes, you hang around long enough with the super-rich, and you become pretty rich yourself. Take Peter Harf and Olivier Goudet, the duo who run JAB Holding Co. for the Reimann family, whose fortunes go back to 19th-century Germany. Matt Levine [examines]( details of a [Bloomberg Big Take]( that says if the clan had instead invested in, say, a fund that tracks the MSCF World Fund Index, they’d be worth twice as much as they are now — which is still about $25 billion. Instead, the two men who handle the Reimann funds went into coffee in a big way — including the things you pair with it, like Krispy Kremes. So big that, even though those investments tanked, Harf and Goudet are now billionaires themselves. That’s due to JAB payouts and their own stakes in other investments by the holding company. Still, as Matt says, it’ll provide individual Reimanns with priceless cocktail party conversation. Instead of saying “I own diversified index funds,” Matt says they can say, “Oh, I own Krispy Kreme and am a major global player in the coffee industry, and our business is so good that it has made the guys who manage my money billionaires.” He says “That’s cool.” Me? I’d be thinking of all the other conversations I could buy my way into if I was worth the $50 billion instead of $25 billion.  If you do go to work, it helps when the company recognizes your worth. Chris Bryant [holds up the example]( of Tufan Erginbilgic, the chief executive officer of Rolls Royce, who’s due a £40 million payday ($51 million). That’s just a fraction of the Reimann money, but it’s still impressive for a corporate executive in the UK, a country that so belittles high salaries that CEOs are incentivized to move their companies to the US. Chris says Erginbilgic led Rolls Royce’s year-old turnaround and the attendant rise in the company’s stock (which is part of his pay package and a reason why his compensation is increasing so much). Go ahead, Tufan, live a little. Now, the opposite of our opening thesis is true, too. If you hang out with the super-rich, you might have to share their problems, too. Andy Mukherjee [writes]( about the latest chapter in the continuing saga of Gautam Adani, the 19th richest person in the world. A year ago, Hindenburg Research, a reputable if controversial short-seller, described him as the center of essentially a humungous con. The billionaire denied the accusations vehemently, but the charges created a sinkhole in the Adani Group’s capitalization. Hindenburg’s latest report casts conflict-of-interest aspersion on Madhabi Puri Buch, who runs the Security and Exchange Board of India, which regulates the country’s financial industry. As Andy summarizes: “According to documents provided to Hindenburg by a purported whistleblower … Buch and her husband … opened an account in 2015 with a wealth-management firm in Singapore to invest in a Mauritius-registered offshoot of a Bermuda-based fund. The Mauritian fund was run by an Adani director, and its ultimate parent was the vehicle through which two Adani associates had secretly amassed large positions in the conglomerate, according to an investigation by the Financial Times last year.” The couple called the allegations “character assassination” but did not deny their association with the Mauritius fund. In any event, Rahul Gandhi, who heads the opposition in parliament to Adani’s pal Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has asked for Buch to be fired. Do Unto Putin The war in Ukraine has been in such a stalemate that the daily updates have offered few surprises. Until now. Over the last few days, Ukrainian forces have punched into and held territory near the Russian city of Kursk. Marc Champion [weighs in]( on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s strategy: “It could be weeks or months before we know if this was a brilliant, high-risk maneuver that changed the direction of a war increasingly playing to Russian advantages in manpower and munitions, or a disaster that pulled thousands of experienced Ukrainian troops from already strained defensive lines, only to waste them on a vanity project.” In any event, the person who shouldn’t be surprised is Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is no rule in war that the invader doesn’t get to be invaded. If he was surprised, that’s a problem — for Russia. As James Stavridis [writes]( “Notable has been Ukraine’s ability to prepare and execute the operation despite the presence of of Russian satellites and intelligence operatives. It is much harder to achieve the element of surprise in a modern battlefield under the unblinking eye of modern surveillance systems, from drones to advanced cyber capabilities.” Telltale Charts “Household finances, but also the weather, will play a part in how [the travel market fares]. In Britain for example, the summer had been poor, leading more people to book to go to Mediterranean beach resorts. But temperatures have now risen, perhaps persuading people to stay closer to home. Our thirst for sun and sand will determine not just the fortunes of the travel industry, which make most of their profits in the summer season, but the direction of consumer spending.” — Andrea Felsted in “[Tourism Protesters May Get What They Wish For]( “Summer rains are leaving China sodden. That’s pushing coal underwater. After several years of drought, rainfall has been lashing the country for nearly three months, flooding rivers, towns and mines … There’s a flipside to all this devastation, though. The world’s largest system of hydroelectric power has been on standby since late 2022, when droughts caused by the La Niña climate cycle drained the reservoirs that feed it. The torrential downpours of the past few months are switching that immense machine back on.” — David Fickling in “[A Flood of Hydro Is Washing Coal From China’s Grid]( Further Reading There’s more to [Australia]( than Sydney and Melbourne. — Andreea Papuc China’s [AI gold rush](. — Catherine Thorbecke Factories are [returning to cities](. — Adrian Wooldridge Japan’s politics gets back to [abnormal](. — Gearoid Reidy China’s clumsy [yield-curve controls](. — Shuli Ren How a yard sale became [best in show](. — Paul J. Davies Walk of the Town: London’s bicycle thieves. A few weeks ago, while ambling down the Victoria Embankment, the avenue that runs along the north bank of the Thames, I started to see a young woman — just a dozen steps ahead of me — suddenly take off in a mad dash, arms flailing, her poofy jacket fluffing like an ostrich’s plumage. It took a couple of seconds for me to realize that she was chasing a group of young men on motorized bikes. One of them had snatched her smartphone out of her hand and taken off. His buddies ran interference for a few seconds until it was clear the woman couldn’t keep up with them. Last year, around 52,000 mobile phones were snatched by thieves in the British capital. The incidents cluster around the central part of the city, especially the highly-touristed areas adjacent to Parliament and Westminster Abbey. About 50% of cases involve thieves on bikes sweeping down on their victims. When I ordered my iPhone 15  Pro Max, I decided to pay by installment because I worried about losing the full sum in the event of a robbery — and I took out insurance. I also make sure I’m shielded from the street and at least backed into some kind of solid, unexposed corner when I take out my phone. I feel a little ridiculous because the fear gets in the way of the convenience of using a smartphone: to be able to talk or browse on the go. Recently, I came across this short comic video by Uyen Ninh, a young Vietnamese woman living in Germany. She has 2 million followers on Instagram. Anyway, her take is a reminder that we can make our paranoia get the better of us. Still, it’s good to be careful: [Instagram: Uyen Ninh on Instagram: "Don’t you da...]( Drawdown It’s been quite hot lately. Thanks for sweating it out. ”Cool it. Or else I shall compare thee to a summer’s day!” Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send temperate comments and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram]( [TikTok]( [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Stay updated by saving our new email address Our email address is changing, which means you’ll be receiving this newsletter from noreply@news.bloomberg.com. 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