The super rich are coming for your cars

Get in. We're going for a spin. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an exclusive but not elitist invocation of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Must-Reads - LVMH [pops]( the Moet. - The nuclear plant whose time has [not yet come](. - Vietnam’s [moment](. - India’s on a lending [spree](. - What’s French for [far right](? Does it translate to German? - McKinsey [to the rescue](. Just kidding. - A [deepfake]( resurrection in Indonesia. When Your Ride Is So Money You Don’t Have Enough Six months ago, I wrote about how the [family office industry]( — which services the pyramid tip-top of plutocracy — was burgeoning and snatching away talent that might otherwise be available to a wider public. I’d been alarmed that I’d never taste the cooking of a couple of chefs who had vanished into comfortable invisibility preparing meals for so-called Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) and their families. Thinking only about myself, I missed another angle to this reshaping of the world of personal finance. The automobile industry has followed suit. I don’t drive (in fact, I failed all the road tests I took), so I never look at the price stickers on cars. But this week, there has been much handwringing in the UK over the cost of owning Range Rovers — a vaunted status symbol in this very status-conscious kingdom. Striving members of the middle class have realized that the Range Rover SV is beyond their reach £200,000 ($254,000). In his column this week, Chris Bryant [says]( that a stratospheric price point is what has helped to reverse a downward spiral for the Range Rover’s manufacturer, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc, which is a subsidiary of India’s Tata Motors Ltd. In the past year, Tata’s stock price has practically doubled, outpacing every other company in the Bloomberg World Auto Manufacturer’s Index. That is to a very large extent due to JLR — which contributes two-thirds to Tata’s revenue — focusing on the high end of the market. Says Chris: “JLR has learned that building fewer cars and selling them at higher prices is a much better approach than pursuing growth at all costs.” He adds, JLR “now requires only 300,000 sales to break even; and by focusing on its most profitable models — Range Rover, Ranger Rover Sport and Defender comprise around three-quarters of its order book — it has been able to raise average sales prices by around half since 2019 to more than £70,000.” The world’s total wealth is more than $431 trillion, and millionaires — who are estimated to reach nearly 80 million by 2027 — control about a quarter of that (you’ll need to be worth seven figures and up to afford the insurance alone for a Range Rover). So, the math works in Tata and JLR’s favor. Not that their job is done. The J in JLR is Jaguar, the emblematic sportscar of Britain, featured in James Bond flicks and movies from Love Actually to the zombie apocalypse of Shaun of the Dead. It’s been the sick cat of Tata for years, with sales slumping amid quality control concerns. Still, the sporty and sleek F-Type can be had for £65,000 to £70,000; and JLR will relaunch the brand with an electric model in 2025, priced at about £100,000. Bargains to be had for us in the down market! The 21st Century Grand Tour Will Cost You It’s not just cars (and private chefs) that are aiming for the UHNWI. So is your vacation package. Rachel Sanderson [writes](about Europe’s increasing unequal holidays as cities like Athens and Venice try to cap the hoi polloi while catering to those who can afford to pay extra (a lot extra) for access. Among other exclusives, she says, “The Greek Culture Ministry for the first time this summer is offering private visits to the Acropolis for €5,000. Overwhelmed on that Italian Riviera beach? There’s an exclusive one, branded for the past two summers by French luxury-goods brand Christian Dior, where sun lounges can cost €500 a day at high season.” Mass tourism is essential to the gross domestic product of many Mediterranean nations, including Italy, Greece, Spain and Croatia. But the hordes can be overwhelming. When Venice lost its independence at the hands of Napoleon and Austria-Hungary in 1797, the city’s new rulers chose to ban carnivale — that ballo in maschera that doubles as a street festival in the lead-up to Lent. The city reinstated it in 1979, and the extravaganza has only drawn more visitors— an estimated 13 million each year — to the city that’s sinking into its legendary lagoon. This year’s carnivale has been combined with the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo, which I write about [here](. Starting in June, Venice will restrict tour groups to fewer than 25 people to help lower the noise pollution of megaphone-equipped guides; the city is also experimenting with a 5 Euro ($5.41) daily charge per visitor to help keep numbers down. As Rachel says, “The economic logic is plain. But there’s also something communal, and European, that’s been lost in the process.” Telltale Charts “Depending on whom you ask, consumer credit in India is either growing too rapidly or not trickling down fast enough. Bankers speak with awe of the industry’s phenomenal expansion, which is so fast-paced that the regulator is starting to get concerned. … The industry keeps chasing a fraction of affluent urban professionals to the exclusion of everyone else. Broaden access, they say, and the scorching growth may become more sustainable.” — Andy Mukherjee in “[India’s Lending Boom Can Be Safer, If Not Slower](.” “Singapore-based Asia Genesis Asset Management Pte is shutting down its macro fund after losing 18.8% in the first weeks of January from a wrong-way bet on Japan and China. … For years, investors were conditioned to brush away a run-up in Japanese stocks as another flash in the pan, while salivating at any rumor of stimulus measures from Beijing. … These historical lessons perhaps guided Chua and his strong convictions, even as many money managers were going the other way. … Chua was burned by the strength of hot money flows into Japan and too much faith in Beijing’s policymakers.” — Shuli Ren in “[Hedge Funds Are Playing a Dangerous Game on Japan and China](.” Further Reading The man who knows [Goldman](too well. — Paul J. Davies A better way than [more taxes]( for the rich to help the government. — Merryn Somerset Webb Plastic bags are still [evil](. — David Fickling Is it time to get that bargain [Rolex](? — Andrea Felsted Alas, poor [Euro](!  — Marcus Ashworth The Tories are very good at [losing](. — Adrian Wooldridge The [South Pacific]( front in the US-China rivalry. — James Stavridis Walk of the Town: Off With Their Heads This year, Jan. 30 falls on a Tuesday, as it did 345 years ago when King Charles I was beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall here in London. It’s a building whose interior he had lavishly decorated during his reign. The anniversary hadn’t occurred to me until I stumbled upon a side note to it while wandering through St. George’s Garden in Bloomsbury: the tomb of Anna Gibson, the granddaughter of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. The tomb of Anna Gibson (foreground) in St. George’s Garden in Bloomsbury Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg As the strongman of the parliamentary revolt against the throne, Oliver Cromwell was instrumental in pushing the victors of the civil war to go through with the king’s execution. Soon after, the country was declared a republic and by 1653, Cromwell became Lord Protector. His son Richard — Anna’s father — had succeeded as dictator of the republic but could not stave off the protectorate’s demise or the 1660 restoration of the Stuart dynasty, in the person of Charles II. Richard’s reign lasted barely nine months, though he held the record for the longest-lived British head of state until 2012, when Elizabeth II surpassed him in age. He is buried in Hampshire. As for Oliver Cromwell, who died in 1658, his body was exhumed soon after Charles II returned to England. The corpse of the regicide was decapitated on Jan. 30, 1661 (that date again) and the remains — except perhaps for his head — lost to history. And where might that head be? For more than two decades, it was stuck on a pole and displayed in Westminster Hall (where Charles I was tried and where, centuries later, Elizabeth II laid in state). Then the provenance becomes murky: It was displayed for profit for the curious and then either consigned to an undisclosed grave in Cambridge (where Cromwell was schooled) or, less likely, somehow ended up as a skull in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Drawdown Thanks for joining me far from the madding crowd. Here’s a sweetener for you! ”Honey is the root of all evil? Have you all lost your hive mind?” Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send fresh buzz and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. 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