expensive

In two years, pork became 29% cheaper on farms and 7% more expensive in supermarkets. The question is obvious

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When we go to the supermarket for fruit, meat, fish or any other food we find labels that inform us of their prices, but that figure is only the last in a long (and complex) chain of costs in which not all the links move at the same pace. That is the idea that they wanted to emphasize the farmers on account of pork: according to their calculations, they charge 29% less today than in 2024 while the supermarkets sell it to us 7% more expensive. The question is obvious: where is this differential, which according to industry estimates has given a jump of 179%? What has happened? That the Coordinator of Farmers and Ranchers Organizations (COAG) just report “the growing gap” between what farms charge for pork and the prices that end customers end up paying in supermarkets. After analyzing the market for two years (from April 2024 to the same month of 2026) and calculate what is called the Price Index at Origin and Destination (IPOD), the agricultural organization has detected two trends that move in opposite directions in the production chain: while ranchers charge less for their product today than two years ago, supermarkets sell it at a higher price. How much more expensive? COAG assures that in April 2024, farmers received 1.83 euros for each kilo of pork. In April 2026 (latest data available) this indicator had dropped to €1.3/kg. The striking thing is that (always according to COAG data) the “destination price”which the consumer pays in the supermarket, evolved in the opposite direction. From €6.45/kg in 2024, it went to €6.9/kg. What does that mean? Basically, while producers saw the price of their goods decline by 28.9%, the rates at which meat is sold in supermarkets grew by 6.9%. Are there more indicators? Yes. The organization not only records the rates that are charged at one time or another. It also calculates the “farm-supermarket differential,” an indicator that basically shows how wide the margin is that separates both ends of the production chain. Their conclusion is even more revealing: while in 2024 the differential was 252%, last month it rose to 431%. The COAG speaks already of “a growing and unjustified gap between what the rancher charges and what the final consumer pays” in the supermarket. “The data show that the drop in the price at origin has not been passed on to the consumer at any time. Quite the opposite: while the rancher was suffering a continued drop in income throughout 2025 and early 2026, the price in the supermarket not only remained stable, but continued to grow,” argues the coordinator, who denounces the effect of this double trend: “A net transfer of income from the producer to the distribution chain and the meat industry.” What do the supermarkets say? Coincidence or not, the COAG report It comes just a few days after Asedas, the Spanish Association of Distributors, Self-service and Supermarkets, publicly complained of the “systematic distortions” and “simplistic approaches” that are often used when analyzing the prices that govern the different phases of the production chain. A speech that “generates confusion” and leads to thinking about “hidden intermediaries.” “There are no abusive margins, the price of the final product is fully justified by real costs, risks assumed and investments made,” they argue from the association, which has presented a study precisely on how to “precisely” compare origin-destination prices. In the analysis, prepared by Manuel Hidalgo, professor of Economics at the Pablo de Olavide University, it is appointment among others the IPOD made by COAG. “It constitutes the most paradigmatic example of how a methodologically deficient approach can generate distorted perceptions about the real functioning of the agri-food chain.” What do they argue? The study signed by Hidalgo warns that the IPOD, “far from providing clarity to the debate, introduces significant distortions” and is based on “a conceptually erroneous premise: the idea that the agri-food chain can be analyzed through a simple binary comparison between two points.” The economist warns of “value creation processes” and remember that more actors than farms and supermarkets participate in the chain that brings food from the fields to the tables. Throughout the report, Hidalgo denounces other errors, such as comparing the lowest prices at origin with “the highest observed” on the shelves, that there are comparisons based on unrepresentative samples or that gross margin and net profit are wrongly equated. And what do they propose then? Alternatively, the economist poses a calculation formula that exemplifies with several products. One of them is olive oil, which is tracked from its price at origin (€2.35/l) to that applied in stores (€7.5/l). In between, it indicates the transformation and distribution phases, during which the oil incorporates an “added value” of €5.15 and a commercial margin. “This increase is not speculation, but the sum of necessary services,” concludes the analysis, presented by Asedas and Caea. What’s happening with the market? Beyond the interpretations of some and others about where the margin of money that separates what is paid on farms and in supermarkets ends, one thing is clear: the Spanish pork market is going through a complex moment. Farmers have been greatly affected by the cases of African swine fever detected at the end of last year in Catalonia, which made China ban the entry gender from Barcelona. In general, the data from the Interporc employer association show that in 2025 exports generally fell by 3.4% annually, dragging down turnover, which contracted by 300 million euros. The impact of swine fever it didn’t take long in letting yourself feel with price drops and the search for new markets. A complex scenario that, months later, was followed by the hangover from the Iran war, which, as in many other sectors (including agricultural ones) was felt with an increase in price of fuels. With this backdrop, and for the sake of a more precise ‘photo’ of what is happening with prices, COAG demands something else from the Government: that it publish updated … Read more

RAM aims to become even more expensive

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For years we have accepted that mobile phones were rising in price in exchange for better cameras, better screens, faster processors and, so to speak, increasingly refined designs. We have also begun to assume that on-device AI does not come free: it usually requires more power, more storage and more memory. The surprise is that one of the next blows may come precisely from there, from mobile RAM, a component that usually goes unnoticed, but is very present in the real cost of each smartphone that hits the market. The clearest signal comes from the LPDDR5Xone of the most relevant mobile memories on the current market and which was already coming from an unusual movement. According to TrendForce datathis type of report registered a quarter-on-quarter increase of between 58% and 63% in the first quarter of 2026. This is the largest quarterly increase in its history. What is striking is that this jump does not seem to have closed the cycle: the forecast for the second quarter points to an even more intense rise. If we focus on the forecast for the second quarter, the scale of the problem changes. A projection attributed to TrendForce, shared Jukan Choipoints out that mobile DRAM contract prices will grow between 93% and 98% in quarter-on-quarter terms during that period. In other words: we are not talking about one more increase in a stressed market, but rather a jump close to doubling the price in just three months. For the smartphone industry, a figure like this is not background noise. It should be noted that TrendForce works with paid reports aimed mainly at institutional investors, analysts and companies in the sector, so the full document is not openly available. The relevant part for this article has emerged through Choi, a semiconductor analyst at Citrini Research. The expert accumulates more than 100,000 followers on X and his comments have been cited by media such as The Economistwhich included them in an article about the impact of AI on consumer electronics. The impact on the price of RAM in mobile phones Here we are not talking about the price that a user sees when looking for memory in a store. Mobile DRAM is negotiated in another area: that of contracts between memory manufacturers, such as Samsung, SK Hynix or Micronand large customers who buy enormous volumes to integrate these chips into their products. This world is made up of mobile brands, server manufacturers and other OEMs. That is why the data matters: it does not describe a specific purchase, but rather the base cost with which the industry begins to manufacture its next devices. The rise doesn’t appear out of nowhere either. SemiAnalysis noted at the beginning of April 2026 that DRAM prices could more than double this year and record another double-digit increase in 2027. The same firm noted that the contract price of LPDDR5 had risen more than 3 times since the first quarter of 2025, and that it was likely to exceed $10/GB on the open market during the first quarter of 2026. That is, the second quarter does not inaugurate the tension: the accelerates. DRAM prices could more than double this year and see another double-digit increase in 2027. The backdrop is AI. HBM memory, key to powering the GPUs that power many artificial intelligence data centers, remains in a situation of structural scarcity and absorbs a good part of the sector’s investment. The consequence is easy to understand: if a good part of the money, productive capacity and attention of manufacturers is directed to that high-bandwidth memory, there is less margin to alleviate strain on other DRAM families. Among them is mobile memory, which now competes in a much more demanding supply chain. Added to this is another important detail: smartphone-class memory no longer lives only within the smartphone. NVIDIA uses LPDDR5X in its Grace and Vera processorsdesigned for AI-linked server systems. The reading for the mobile market is clear: a technology used in phones and compact devices is also part of architectures that compete for resources at the center of the race for artificial intelligence. The difference with the PC world helps to understand it better. If we build a computer, we can choose how much RAM to buy, look for an offer and install the module ourselves. It doesn’t work like that with cell phones: we buy a complete device, with the memory already integrated and no real margin to intervene later. That makes the rise of the LPDDR not seen directlybut it doesn’t mean it disappears. It is incorporated into the cost of manufacturing the phone and, from there, it can end up influencing the price we pay. Counterpoint helps convert that increase in price in a figure that is much easier to visualize. For a high-end configuration, with 16 GB of LPDDR5X HKMG and 512 GB of UFS 4.1 storage, the firm projected an increase in BOM between 100 and 150 dollars for the second quarter of 2026. We are talking about the cost of materials, not the sales price, so it is not advisable to mechanically transfer that figure to the consumer. Even so, it is a sign that does not go unnoticed. The bad news, therefore, is not that all mobile phones are going to increase in price automatically or in the same proportion. That will depend on each manufacturer.their contracts, their margins and how they configure each range. But the factor is there: if mobile memory becomes more expensive with this force, the cost of manufacturing a smartphone inevitably changes. And in a market that was already getting us used to increasingly demanding prices, RAM is emerging as another obstacle for those who expected a price drop in the short term. Images | PR MEDIA | Samsung In Xataka | Apple had been able to maintain prices despite the crazy rise in RAM. That’s over

cost savings are becoming very expensive for big tech

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Large technology companies have been in a dynamic for months that is difficult to understand if the current technological context is not taken into account. Companies that, according to your tax results of the first quarter of 2026, record historic profits close to 80%they are cutting jobs at the same time. What is happening in their workforce has nothing to do with a financial crisis, but rather responds to a strategic decision regarding AI. According to the records from the portal Layoffs.fyiSo far in 2026, more than 92,000 employees in the technology sector they have lost their job throughout the world due to layoff rounds that the main technology companies have launched. The main argument for these layoffs is AIbut not because this technology is going to do the work that programmers used to do, but rather it responds to a restructuring of companies to lighten their workforce and focus only on developing AI. The measure is not coming cheap. The big bet of AI that must be paid. By chance (and the proximity to the presentation of their first quarter results) Microsoft and Meta announced, on the same day, layoffs that will affect more than 16,000 employees between the two. Meta will lay off 8,000 workers, 10% of its global workforce, and will leave another 6,000 vacancies unfilled. The goal of both companies is to improve efficiency and offset investment in artificial intelligence. Microsoft will face investments close to 145 billion dollars only in this fiscal year, thus adding to investments in AI what are they doing each and every one of the big technology companies. Maintaining that bet without margins suffering forces cuts, and personnel is the expense that investors like it less. Altogether, investments worth 700,000 million will be accumulated among all large technology companies during 2026. These estimates also include compensation expenses that are associated with these personnel cuts. Oracle, for example, reserved 2.1 billion dollars only for this game in your round of 30,000 layoffs. Microsoft launches a different formula: voluntary dismissal. Instead of announcing collective layoffs, Microsoft has chosen a path that the company had never used in its 51-year history: making voluntary exit offers to encourage its employees to leave by their own decision. Google already applied this formula of voluntary dismissals in its 2025 personnel cuts, not without the risk of losing its best employees by opening the exit door for them. This initiative is aimed at employees with a very specific profile who, in theory, would be more complicated to relocate to a new internal position within the framework of this workforce restructuring. In total, this offer has been made to 7% of its workforce in the US, more than 8,500 people. Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the move in an internal memo. In that statement to which had access CNBCColeman wrote: “Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the option to take that next step on their own terms, with the company’s generous support.” Why an incentive instead of a layoff. Both voluntary departure and conventional dismissal have the same outcome: the workforce is reduced. However, as as highlighted to Fortune Domenique Camacho Moran, lawyer and partner at the Farrell Fritz law firm, specialized in labor law for Fortune 500 companies, traditional layoffs are legally more complex because they require evaluating the performance of each worker and argue his dismissal to avoid legal risks. “The voluntary exit option gives the employer the ability to say that it’s not that we don’t think you’re doing a good job, but that if you’re thinking it’s time to move on, I’m going to encourage you to do so because we need to downsize.” Incidentally, since it is an initiative of the employee, the company does not have to look for arguments for dismissal, which simplifies the process and avoids future legal claims. A risky bet for talent. However, as we already mentioned, the voluntary dismissal formula is risky since it leaves the decision in the hands of the employee. possibility of resigning. In a context of shortage of specialized talent (especially in AI), companies run the risk that their best swords will accept the incentive, paying a double cost for it. Last year, Google offered voluntary departures across several teams, including its search and advertising division. Vice President Nick Fox was blunt in his memo: “I want to be very clear: If you are excited about your job, energized by the opportunity ahead of you, and performing well, I really (really!) hope you don’t take it.” as collected CNBC. In Xataka | While technology companies dispense with juniors to replace them with AI, IBM is doing the opposite: catching bargains Image | Unsplash (Compagnons, Sam Torres)

We paid for the most expensive tomato in the last decade and farmers claim that they can’t pay the bills. They are right

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“I’d rather throw away the harvest than pay us 80 cents per kilo of tomatoes.” Almost a year ago, Riojan farmer Clara Sarramián gave an interview to Jaime Gumiel that still kicking. Above all, because it explains in a simple and accessible way the last five years of tractor units. And yet, no matter how much it is repeated, Sarramián’s speech and that of other farmers never ceases to surprise: “they wanted to pay me half as much as the previous year. I preferred to throw it away. If we all go through the hoop, we are going against ourselves,” he says. We have heard it many times, yes; but does it make sense? Are they right in their complaint? That is the first thing to clarify and the truth is that if we look at the data, it is difficult to say no. The origin-destination commercial margin of tomato reached in 2025 81.1% (second highest in a decade)according to data from the Observatory of the Junta de Andalucía. In fact, without leaving aside the case of the tomato, a 2020 study by the Institut Cerdà on the value chain pointed out that the total cost of tomatoes is €0.61/kg (labor 0.258; seeds 0.081; structure 0.078; fertilizers 0.059; others) compared to the €0.57/kg paid to the producer. And this is data from 2017: the situation has only worsened since the war in Ukraine. It doesn’t seem like the best business in the world. In fact, it seems like a pretty bad one. Above all, because although we have been developing regulations for years that allow us to limit the impact of these problems, they all end up in a dead letter. Furthermore, the external pressure (especially from Morocco for the tomato issue) is enormous. And many of the main market players play “double agents” because they are conglomerates with investments on both sides of the Strait. Why should we care? I imagine that the simplest data to understand how this impacts the consumer is this: we are paying for fresh tomatoes. the highest price in the last decade and, at the same time, the farmer who grows it in Spain affirms that it does not pay him to harvest it. And, anyway, as we have just seen, he is right. And, under these circumstances, why would they want to throw away the harvest? That is to say, it is worth paying below cost; But something will always be better than nothing, right? And that idea makes sense, but it ignores some important things. To begin with, that between 25 and 30% of agricultural costs They occur in collection, packaging, transportation and wholesale sales (with possible associated losses). If they are not collected, the farmer loses what he has already invested, yes. But it does not incur more costs that it cannot recover. Furthermore, as we have seen in situations like lemon either the bananaletting part of the harvest be lost prevents prices from collapsing. It is not an easy strategy to implement (because there are always people with incentives to sell as the price rises), but it is a rational strategy. Tick ​​tock Tick ​​tock All this happens in a very specific context: in June it begins the negotiation of the post-2027 CAP and that is what makes the key question not “why does Clara Sarramián throw away her tomatoes?” but “how do we ensure that one of the central industries of the Spanish economy (the only one that supports the emptied Spain) does not die in a matter of a few years?” Image | Rachel Clark In Xataka | We have a problem with pesticides in agriculture. And a bigger one with the panic they generate

In London someone has paid 310 million for the most expensive house in history. It is proof that the luxury market has no ceiling

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In the world there are expensive houses (increasingly), very expensive houses and then houses within reach only of the greatest fortunes on the planet, like the one that has just been sold in London for a whopping 270 million poundsabout 310 million euros at the exchange rate. The figure is shocking in itself (it is the same that has been paid in other parts of Europe to build a stadium), but it becomes even more interesting when another detail is known: everything indicates that it is the most expensive home sold to date in an operation of that type, focused on a single residence. To get the keys, its new owner, an influential British businessman, had to beat three royal families from the Middle East. What has happened? that the real estate market premium has just reached one of those milestones that sound almost like science fiction, at least among ordinary mortals. The British press has revealed that a wealthy businessman in the country has closed the purchase of the most expensive home sold to date. And “more expensive” can be understood in a literal sense. Although it is not easy to talk about world records in a sector in which properties do not always go on the market nor are operations advertised, the Bloomberg agency slide which is probably the largest sale in history centered on a property of its type: a single single-family home. It is not crazy if you take into account that the transaction was signed for 270 million pounds, about 310 million euros. Some sources raise the figure to more than 315 million. What is the housing like? The property is called Providence House (formerly Gordon House) and is a huge 19th century mansion located in the Chelsea neighborhood of west London. The plot once housed the residence of the British Prime Minister Robert Walpolebut for years it has belonged to Nick Candya London businessman linked to the brick sector and the Reform UK party. Beyond its privileged location, in the heart of one of the most expensive cities on the planet, the house surprises with its figures: the house stands on a plot of two acres (just over 8,000 m2) with a lake and swimming pool and Georgian style decoration. Media like Financial Times they need which has a private cinema with IMAX screen, greenhouse and the second largest garden from the center of London. It is only surpassed by the one surrounding Buckingham Palace. Who bought it? The buyer is Sunel Setiya, co-founder of Quadrature Capitala trading firm that according to Bloomberg data obtained a profit of 411 million pounds in the financial year ending January 2025. Although with Providence House he has broken all the molds, this is not the first time that Setiya has made headlines for his taste for luxury homes… and his enormous generosity in paying for them. In his day he already paid 110 million pounds for a penthouse in One Hyde Park. And that the property, of around 1,300 m2lacked interior divisions and required works. The Times details which on this occasion has had to pay more than 31 million pounds for property tax alone. The operation certainly marks a before and after in the British real estate market. The most expensive house sold in the United Kingdom before Setiya took out his checkbook was the mansion known as 2-8A Rutland Gate, awarded in 2020 for £210 million to Hui Kan Yan, founder of the Chinese developer Evergrande Group. Click on the image to go to the tweet. And who sold it? Nick Candy, another British tycoon who shares Setiya’s taste for exclusive homes. In fact, he has a penthouse in the same complex that is also for sale for around £175 million. Nick and his brother Christian are known in the sector for the development of the complex One Hyde Parkmade up of 86 apartments and duplexes in the heart of Knightsbridge. Beyond their taste for luxury homes, Setiya and Candy are at opposite poles on an ideological level. The first (Setiya) is a important donor of the Labor Party and dedicates large sums of money through his company to fighting climate change. Nick Candy however is a prominent figure of Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s far-right party. Have there been more interested parties? Ideological differences do not seem to have been an obstacle to closing the operation. In fact, to become the new owner of Providence House Setiya had to prevail over three Middle Eastern royal families also interested in the luxurious London mansion. Given its characteristics (and amounts), the operation was carried out outside the market. The operation represents a lifeline for the luxury residential market in London, which, as remember Five Daysis not going through its best moment. According to LonRes, 2025 was the second time since 2011 that no sales of more than £50 million were closed and in February transactions worth five million (or more) suffered a year-on-year drop of 55%. The puncture coincides with a tax change that directly affects properties. Image | Jaanus Jagomagi (Unsplash) In Xataka | If the question is whether house prices will rise forever, London has the answer. And it is a warning for Madrid

In the Middle Ages there was a very expensive culinary trend that today would make your food inedible: they bathed it in spices

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For tastes, colors. But if you were the guest of a landowner from the Middle Ages, a wealthy count or baron who wanted to impress his diners with a sumptuous banquet of fish, meat, wine and sweets, it would be best if your tastes leaned towards hyper-spicy food. After all, it was not unreasonable that on the table you would find a tray of pheasant swimming in a sauce made with 17 different spicesso many that its flavor would hardly please today’s palates. Maybe that expectation seems unappetizing to you, but for medieval diners it made perfect sense. Better with spices. Medieval diners liked spices. A lot. So much so that their banquets were an authentic display of dressings of ginger, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg or saffron, among a long and well seasoned etc. As an example, Michael Delahoydefrom Washington State University, explains that a meat sauce could contain about 17 different spices. In another recent example The Country spoke of recipes up to 15 and plenty of sugar. Everything on the same plate. Combined. Forming a mixture of flavors that would make the foods that gave luster to the great banquets of medieval nobles hardly edible for 21st century diners. And that (culinary ironies) has never been as easy to find spices as it is today: it comes with entering any supermarket to find full shelves. A gastronomic window. If we know what and how medieval nobles ate, it is thanks to the work of historians and works such as ‘The Book of Sent Soví’a manuscript that stands out for several reasons: it is the oldest recipe book of its type in the Iberian Peninsula and for a few days it has been starring an exhibition about medieval food in Valencia. The work contains 72 recipes and dates back to the 15th century, although experts are convinced that the work is based on a previous original, now lost, that was written in 1324. The work is interesting not only because of its recipes. It is also because it tells us about what the diners of the Late Middle Ages were like, perhaps somewhat different from us in tastes, but not in terms of attitude. In addition to appreciating the good taste of the dishes, they liked to show off, using gastronomy as a status symbol. They appreciated kitchens with large stoves, the carvers who cut and distributed the meat among the diners, spices and sugar. Cooking and marketing (medieval). “We all have to eat, every day, but in the Middle Ages they did not have the ways of distinguishing themselves that we have. They turned food into a liturgy, a ritual in which they demonstrated their wealth and that was seen even outside because they gave leftovers to the poorest classes. It was a way of demonstrating status,” comment to The Country Juan Vicente García Marsilla, professor of Medieval History and curator of the exhibition. The 15th century recipe book preserved in Valencia has much of that pomp and prestige that was sought among kitchens and pantries. In its prologue it slips that the original work was prepared some time ago by commission from an English kingbut the recipes speak of another reality: an author probably Valencian or Catalan accustomed to the gastronomic tradition of the Mediterranean. “Marketing hype of the time”, summarizes García. By attributing the work to a foreign and ancient chef, the recipe book sought to imbue itself with exoticism and prestige. Why so many spices? Partly because of the above. Status. Today we may find them in any Mercadona, but spices or sugar centuries ago They were luxuries that were not within reach of all the tables. “Spices were a sign of luxury and opulence. They denoted prestige,” comments Delahoydewho reflects on the peculiar value of medieval cookbooks: probably not all cooks knew how to read and the recipe books were not used in the kitchen either, but rather were kept in private collections. Therefore… Were they useful for those responsible for provisions? Were they a sign of status? A way to learn about the exotic ingredients in each dish, garnishes that might otherwise go unnoticed by diners? In search of flavors… and names. Analida Braeger slips some interesting reflections in Medievalist.neta platform founded in 2008 and specialized in medieval history. In a comprehensive article On the subject, he points out that the medieval palate became accustomed to foods heavily seasoned with spices, a symbol of power increased in part by its exotic origin and the imports from the East. In the extensive list included cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, saffron, mace, cardamom or galangal. insatiable demand. “Europe’s insatiable demand for spices in the late Middle Ages is a notable example of a drastic historical shift brought about by consumer preferences,” pointed out in 2012 Paul Freedman in an article published in ‘The Oxford Handbook of Food History’. The result is recipes like chicken with sugar which we can read in the 15th century manuscript preserved in Valencia. Furthermore, spices were not only used in cooking, they also had medical applications. There is who assures that despite their limited availability and high cost, a very high percentage of the recipes in cookbooks from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries include spices and that at least some works cite up to 40 different types. In any case, it must be clear that the cuisine of the aristocracy and that widespread among the popular classes are not the same. Among the latter it was not strange that cold food for a matter of costs. Revisiting old topics. As happens often With everything related to the Middle Ages, the use of spices is overshadowed by clichés and prejudices that are not always accurate. Delahoyde remembers the “common myth” that cooks of the time relied heavily on seasonings to mask the taste of spoiled meat. After all, there were no refrigerators or freezers to keep meat fresh, right? Why not season it well? It is not likely that … Read more

expensive literary retreats to overcome mobile addiction

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February weekend, Welsh coast. A group of women sits around a table accompanied by appetizing portions of pasta and fruit. They ignore each other very politely. Nobody looks at their cell phones, but at the voluminous books they carry with them. They open them, begin to read their own in silence, and pay 1,200 euros (or more) for that strange privilege. Expanding business. In the United States and the United Kingdom, a new category of travel experience has been born: reading retreats. A group of people meets in a rural house or hotel boutique during a weekend to advance their personal readings, in friendly silence and without obligation to read a common book, as happens with reading clubs. Very expensive and exclusive, prices vary from company to company Page Break (between $1,000 and $1,200 per weekend) up to Ladies Who Lit (£3,450 for four days in Mallorca) or Bad Bitch Book Club (between $950 and $1,750). It’s his thing. Although today it is perceived as a solitary activity, reading as something introspective is a historically anomalous perception. For centuries, reading was a social practice: families gathered by the warmth of the fireplace to listen to loud sermons, women sharing stories while they sewed, travelers exchanging books in train cars. In fact, the appearance of the railway in the 19th century generated an entire industry: the publisher Henry Walton Smith began selling cheap novels on the platforms of London stations, and Allen Lane installed a vending machine for books from the Penguin publishing house (the Penguincubator) in the subway lobbies. It is read less.The decline in reading rates is well documented. From 2003 to 2023, the share of Americans who read for pleasure daily fell from 28% to 16%, approximately 3% annually. The report from which these data come, prepared from more than 236,000 participants, indicates that the drop is more pronounced among the population with the lowest income and lowest educational level, although the decline affects all demographic groups. Teleworking has also affected a historical reading space: the commute to work. The importance of BookTok. But in the face of this general decline in reading rates, especially in more modest classes, there is a demand for reading as a form of leisure that disconnects from the connected and hyperactive rhythm in which we live. Paradoxically (coming from a social network), the TikTok reading community has a lot to do with this new vision of reading: with 200,000 million views under the hashtag booktokthis social network is already a sales engine that rescues titles from oblivion and catapults works by independent authors to the best-seller lists. According to the founder of The Literary LeagueAccording to Gabi Valladares, who has organized reading retreats at the Scribner’s Lodge resort in the Catskills, “book vacations offer a built-in connection point,” adding that they are “undemanding,” combining time with authors and other fans with free hours to simply read. It disconnects. The idea, even though the Internet is the platform for disseminating this type of retreat and its philosophy, is to disconnect from the online world, in search of recovering uninterrupted reading. As Leah Price points outauthor of ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Books’, the current problem is not work, historically the main competitor to reading, but “the competition from short-form digital content.” The year 2018, when Wi-Fi reached the entire New York subway network, was described as “horrible” for reading in the subway by Uli Beutter Cohen, who interviews travelers about their reading for his Instagram account Subway Book Review. Some clubs. Bad Bitch Book Club was born in 2018 as a Facebook group of friends with common interests. By 2020, confinement boosted the page to 38,000 members worldwide, receiving income of around $200,000 annually through a Patreon subscription of 14 per month. Their summer camps in The Forks, Maine, received 500 applications for 240 spots spread over three weekends. Page Breakfounded in 2024 by Mikey Friedman, has a different proposal: participants read aloud (in turns, we imagine) the same novel throughout the weekend, interspersed with frugal meals and themed games, getting closer to the idea of ​​a traditional book club. For a recent retreat in the Joshua Tree, California desert, the company received 50 applications for 15 spots, which were assigned by lottery. Your goal: millennials and zetas too busy to commit to a conventional book club. Women. The profile of attendees is overwhelmingly female. Emma Donaldson, founder of Boutique Book Breaks (spa hotel retreats in the English countryside), notes that to date she has only had one male guest. The organizers attribute this bias to the feminization of the publishing industry in recent decades and to marketing for these retreats that adopts the language of well-being: candles, bath salts, non-alcoholic cocktails… Theorist DeNel Rehberg Sedo connects the popularity of these women’s reading clubs with the awareness groups of the 1960s and 1970s, speaking of spaces that “continue the training of women and distance them from domestic responsibilities.” The metaphor of well-being is not accidental. When the debate Often focused on choosing between reading as accelerated consumerism or as a reflective practice, these retreats offer a middle ground. The possibility of reading slowly, without being accountable to any algorithm, in the company of other people who also do not understand why the hell reading a book has become something that costs so much work these days. Header | Photo of Michael Kyule in Unsplash

It is so expensive that Spaniards can no longer spend the summer there.

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With summer almost (almost) around the corner, we Spaniards begin to think about where to spend our holidays. That has little new. What is curious is what the INE reveals about our behavior when planning these trips: we think less and less about national destinations, without leaving the country, and we look more abroad. The question is… Why? The low cost they make it easier for usTrue, just as true is that the tourism market is no stranger to generational change and changes in trends. There is however another key factor: the cost of spending the summer in Spain. It has risen so much and so fast that sometimes it makes more sense to travel to the Caribbean either Indonesia. Where do we Spaniards travel to? The question arises, but fortunately we have a valuable tool to answer it: the INE. Recently its technicians published a report on “resident tourism” that leaves a couple of curious conclusions. When we travel, we Spaniards do it above all through our own country. In fact, ‘domestic’ (national) trips meant in 2025 87% of the totalfar from the 13% destined abroad. That’s logical. The surprise comes when we go down to the detail, to the trend. What does the data say? The INE estimates that in 2025, residents in Spain will carry out 175.7 million trips4.7% less than in 2024. However, the ‘puncture’ did not affect all trips equally. The drop was concentrated in those that had a domestic destination, whose flow contracted by 6.1%. Those made abroad experienced the opposite trend, with a growth of 5.2%. The trend was even more pronounced during the last quarter of the year: between October and December the flow of trips to destinations within the country itself fell 7.1%. Those made abroad rose 7.2%. Year Spanish trips without leaving the country Spanish trips abroad 2020 96.45 million 5.07 million 2021 135.69 million 7.20 million 2022 155.25 million 16.13 million 2023 166.60 million 19.29 million 2024 162.81 million 21.62 million 2025 152.94 million (-6.1% year-on-year) 22.75 million (+5.2% year-on-year) Is it the only indicator? Perhaps Spanish tourists think less about Spain when planning trips, but in return foreigners do so much more. In 2025 they visited our country almost 97 million of international tourists, a historical figure that maintains the growing trend registered since the health crisis. They increased over all visitors from the United Kingdom (19.1%), France (12.8%) and Germany (12%). As for the most popular destinations, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Andalusia and the Valencian Community stand out above all. This flow was in turn reflected in the money billed by the sector. Last year, direct spending exceeded 175 billion euros, 5.2% more than in 2024, although the trend is again very different depending on whether we are talking about national or foreign tourists. While spending associated with foreign tourism grew at a rate of 7% the national one stagnated, declining a slight 0.3%. Is it something new? Yes. And no. The data itself is new and updates the ‘general picture’, but the trend comes from behind. If the hotels in Spain have already managed to increase their flow of overnight stays about 5% In 2024 it was not due to the greater dynamism of domestic tourism, but rather due to the avalanche of foreign clients, whose demand skyrocketed by 7.5%. The same thing happened (although more cushioned) in 2025: the Spanish hired 0.2% less of hotel rooms while travelers from other countries demanded 1.6% more. They are not the only clues that tell us about a new reality: as tourist destinations in Spain become more expensive, driven in part by travelers from countries with greater purchasing power (in the case of the United Kingdom, France or Germany), more and more Spaniards choose to go abroad. It is not at all surprising if we take into account that sometimes spending a week in a country of the Southeast Asia or the Caribbean It costs them the same as doing it in the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands. Are the prices that close? That’s how it is. At least if we go to the most extreme cases. In 2025 Mabrian made a study which demonstrates it with a specific case. After searching different options, their technicians concluded that the average price of the plane ticket to visit the Balearic Islands amounted to 142.77 euros. Added to this was an average price per accommodation of 285.72. In the case of Bali the ticket rose to 238.97 euros, but in exchange the cost of the hotel remained at 99.26. The agency made similar comparisons with Sicily, Algarve and Atalya. The conclusion was always the same: flights abroad were more expensive, but the difference with the Balearic Islands was compensated by including accommodation. Other similar analysis from Destinia, also published last year, showed that the 2,726 euros paid per couple in Menorca or 2,694 in Mojácar barely differed from the 2,883 in Punta Cana or 3,094 in the Riviera Maya. Is there price data? Yes. And from different sources. One is the INE, which calculates that in 2025 the hotel price index increased on average by 5.1%which raised the average daily billing of the accommodations per occupied room to 127.7 euros. The other indicator is offered by the firm Cushman & Wakefield. According to your calculationsin 2025 the average price per night in a hotel in Spain rose to 166.1, 4.8% more than in 2024 and (above all) “a new all-time high.” In the Balearic Islands, Marbella and Benidorm the increase was around 10%. It’s not just that hotels are becoming more expensive in Spain, it’s that they are doing so faster than those in the rest of Europe. “Spain’s 4.8% growth is well above that of Europe as a whole (1.2%) and is also higher than that of southern Europe (3.5%). In terms of revenue per available room, Spain continues to be one of the leading destinations, with an increase of 5.5%, surpassing European growth … Read more

In 1945 someone bottled 75 centiliters of wine in Burgundy. And now that wine is the most expensive in history: 700,000 euros

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With 812,500 dollars in your pocket (almost 700,000 euros, at the exchange rate) you can buy a good house in a wealthy neighborhood, embark on a business adventure or simply face life with much more peace of mind, at least on a financial level. In New York there are those who have decided to use that amount of money on something very different: buy a bottle of wine most expensive ever sold at auction, a very exclusive burgundy made from a 1945 vintage that has shattered the previous record, which It dated from 2018. This is still ironic if you take into account that the wine industry (at a general level and in France in particular) does not go through his best moment. An $812,500 wine? That’s how it is. The milestone was reached a few days ago, during an auction held in New York. Of course neither the wine nor the date were normal. The sale was closed during bidding Acker’s Pauléeone of the reference events for wine collectors in the world and (especially) lovers of wines from the Burgundy region, France. Those responsible they boast that in just three days sales of 25 million dollars were made and a good handful of records were achieved. Among all of them, however, there is one that arouses interest beyond the world of viticulture: the bottle for which the most money has been paid in a bid. And what is it like? Special, of course. The piece in question is a 750-milliliter bottle of Romanée-Conti 1945. Said like that, it may not seem like a big deal, but there are several reasons why this wine is so attractive to wine lovers. To begin with, its history. The broth in question was made with grapes collected in 1945 in Romanée-Contiwhich is interesting in itself. Not only because of the symbolic value of that date (the end of World War II). It was also the last harvest before the winery decided to uproot its vineyards to replant them, strengthening them against phylloxeraa plague that dealt a severe blow to the European wine industry, especially in the 19th century. This peculiarity made the 1945 vintage an object of desire for collectors around the world. Not only was it good for Burgundy itself, but it marked a before and after in Romanée-Conti’s production. To make matters worse, there are very few bottles of that vintage. Only 600 were produced. If we trust the most trained palates, the wine obtained at that time also offers a “depth and complexity” difficult to find in other broths. Is it so extraordinary? John Kapon, president of Acker, gives an idea how extraordinary it is to have a bottle like that. “I have had the privilege of tasting the 1945 Romanée-Conti three times in my life, but I have not tried it again in more than 20 years and probably never will again.” “To this day it is still the best wine I have ever tasted. The 1945 vintage was the last harvested before the vineyard was replanted in 1947. As a result of the fight against phylloxera, for many years production was reduced to only 10%. What was made was almost impossible to acquire.” Does it stand out for something else? Yes. Acker stands out that the bottle that has just been auctioned for almost 700,000 euros was part of the personal cellar of Robert Drouhinthe late patriarch of the Drouhin and a reference in the world of wines and more specifically Burgundy. It is not a minor detail because it affects the history (and especially the traceability) of the bottle, giving it even more value. Is it just wine? No. It is also a magnet for investors. Proof that the Romanée-Conti 1945 is exceptional is that the record has been ‘taken from itself’. Right now the Guinness World Records identifies as “the most expensive wine sold at auction” a bottle of that same vintage that reached $558,000 during an auction organized by Sthevby’s in New York in 2018. That its price has gone from $558,000 to $812,500 in less than a decade shows that, in addition to a wine with oenological and historical value, French bottles are an interesting asset from an investment point of view. The Telegraph assures In any case, the (secret) buyer is a citizen from outside France who was moved by his love for vines, not by dollars. A great irony. That a bottle of wine sells for almost 700,000 euros is striking in itself, but it is even more so when we remember that the operation catches the sector at low times. Not that of luxury, but that of wine. For some time now, the indicators used by the industry have pointed to an undeniable and prolonged decrease in consumption or at least a stagnationin the best of cases. His future is not too rosy either. a report The recent European Union (EU) report on agriculture anticipates that demand will fall by 0.9% annually until 2035, leaving per capita consumption at approximately 19.3 liters, significantly lower than the figure recorded at the beginning of the last decade. Images | Acker Wines and EU Via | DAP In Xataka | Europe had placed its hopes in China to continue selling wine to the world. They didn’t have “morality”

The Aragón justice system has shown how expensive it can be for a company to get involved with dismissal letters: 46,665 euros

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There are mistakes that can be corrected with a simple apology. And then there are errors that, once committedhave legal consequences that no apology can undo. A freight transport company in Huesca discovered this in the worst possible way when it fired one of its employees, regretted it days later, trying to back down, and then fired him again. All of this while the worker was at home on medical leave. What seemed like an internal bureaucratic mess ended up in court and with compensation of more than 46,000 euros. The dismissal letters the devil carries them. Two layoffs, one leave and fifteen days of chaos. As documented in the sentence In the case that reached the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon, the worker had been in the company since 2011, with an indefinite contract, and had accumulated more than a year of medical leave due to a cervical injury when, on December 14, 2023, he received a burofax from his company informing him of the disciplinary dismissal. As indicated in the dismissal letter, the employee had carried out incompatible activities with his low status. The worker did not take long to react and began the process to challenge the dismissal in court. But then something unexpected happened. On December 20, just six days later, a second burofax arrived in which the company declared that the first dismissal was annulled and that an internal disciplinary file was opened in its place. Not satisfied with this, on December 29 they received a third burofax containing another dismissal letter, this time accompanied by the payroll and the corresponding settlement. Within two weeks, the employee had received two dismissal communications and one cancellation while was still convalescing at home. Why the company wanted to back down. As stated in the ruling, the company argued that the first dismissal had been a procedural error and considered that the initial letter had formal defects related to the applicable collective agreement, since the worker had questioned by email whether the merchandise transportation agreement or the chemical industry agreement should apply. The company’s intention was to annul that first dismissal, open the correct disciplinary file and issue a new letter in order. From his point of view, the only real dismissal was that of December 29, which had never been challenged by the worker. The company also tried to demonstrate to the court that the underlying reason for the dismissal was legitimate: a private detective report recorded the worker carrying out physical activity during his medical leave, which he interpreted as a simulation of the disability or, at least, as a behavior incompatible with recovery. A dismissal letter is not a draft. The problem for the company is that the dismissal letter is not a simple administrative communication with the employee, but is a document with key legal value with which an entire dismissal process begins with very well-defined deadlines and procedures to give maximum guarantees to both companies and employees. He article 55.1 of the Workers’ Statute establishes that disciplinary dismissal must be notified in writing, with the facts that motivate it and the effective date. Once that letter is delivered, a legal mechanism is put in place that neither party can stop unilaterally. The law itself contemplates the possibility for the company to retract the dismissal and provides a way out when a company wants to correct a poorly formulated dismissal, but as stated in article 55.2 of the Workers’ Statute, it is subject to very precise conditions and deadlines. Furthermore, it is only admitted if, during that rectification period, the company keeps the worker registered with Social Security and pays them all salaries. In this case, the ruling states that it was not proven that the company had complied with that requirement, which blocked this means of rectification. Without the worker’s acceptance, there is no turning back. On the other hand, and beyond the administrative procedures, there is an additional requirement that the company did not comply with in its process of rectification of the first dismissal: for the employment relationship to be restored, the worker who has been dismissed must expressly accept it. It is not enough for the company to declare on its own that the dismissal is without effect. The Supreme Court already established that a communicated dismissal determines that the worker is not obliged to accept any subsequent retraction from the company, and that claiming before the courts in that situation does not constitute any type of abuse. In this case, the employee did not explicitly accept the annulment of the first dismissal or return to his position. The email he sent to the company questioning the applicable collective agreement was not considered by the court as a tacit acceptance of the withdrawal, but rather as confirmation of his dismissal status. The employment relationship, in the eyes of the law, had been terminated on December 14 and no subsequent communication from the company could change that unilaterally. The outcome: more than 46,000 euros in compensation. The TSJ of Aragón also ruled out the argument about physical activity during sick leave. It was proven that the outputs recorded by detective They were walks or runs of about 40 minutes of moderate duration that, according to the medical assessment, were not contraindicated for the worker’s recovery from the cervical injury. With all these arguments on the table, the court declared the dismissal inadmissible, the first, because the second no longer had any legal value, and established compensation of 46,665.34 euros, calculated based on age of the worker. The company appealed that decision to the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon, which confirmed it in its entirety and also ordered it to pay 800 euros in costs. Dismissal letters, especially if they are not well formulated, are carried by the devil. In Xataka | He had been in the same notary office for 16 years and was fired for not passing the trial period: the Supreme Court ended up seeing the … Read more

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