Marc Balcells

Els catalans fugen de Barcelona. No és una sensació, les dades analitzades de 2021-2024 així ho demostren. Any rere any, es manté un saldo negatiu d'autòctons (nascuts a Catalunya), és a dir, més catalans que abandonen la ciutat que no pas que hi van a viure, mentre que els saldos d'estrangers es mantenen elevats. Sí, Barcelona guanya població, però perd catalans.

La subida del precio de la vivienda es un síntoma de la insuficiente oferta de vivienda en relación con la demanda. Se quiere bajar el precio construyendo más viviendas porque construyendo más solucionas el problema de fondo (escasez de vivienda) y por tanto el síntoma (precios) se atenúa. Si tienes 10 unidades de un producto y lo demandan 100 personas, el precio por unidad tenderá a subir hasta que sólo 10 personas quieran ese producto o puedan pagarlo. El Estado puede impedir que el precio suba, pero eso no hará que las 100 personas accedan al producto si solo hay 10 unidades del mismo. Es más, si impides que el precio suba, también estarás destruyendo los incentivos para que se produzcan más de 10 unidades. Ahora bien, que el precio suba no es garantía de que se produzcan más unidades si el Estado lo bloquea o encarece mucho el coste por unidad. He ahí el tema a remediar.

Sant Jordi també és woke? Llegir és incompatible amb els valors occidentals?

Today we launched Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS, our most expressive and controllable text-to-speech model yet. This launch [excitement] includes audio tags! 🗣🏷 Audio tags [explanatory] are a seamless way to guide vocal style, pace, and delivery using natural language commands embedded directly in your text. Want a different tempo or tone? [amazement] Just tag the audio to steer the AI-speech output! The model supports 70+ languages (24 of which are high-quality evaluated languages, including: Japanese, Hindi, and Arabic). Watch the audio tags in action in the demo below ↓

I’ve spent a decade telling people to do what I do: "Buy and Hold." Now I've decided to list my entire real estate portfolio for sale and walk away. It started slow. The bills, the maintenance, the tax increases... but the final straw was when I tried to develop an ADU to do exactly what the city of LA claims it wants investors like me to do: Create more housing. You'd think they'd make it easier, but after two delayed inspections, a sewer pipe replacement that needed 75 days advance notice, and a city-owned tree that became my responsibility, I'd had enough. The identity of being a real-estate guy is very hard to walk away from, trust me. For a long time, I stayed just because real estate was my "thing." It’s how I started. It’s what I’m known for. It led to every good thing in my life. But that blinded me to the fact that just because something served me in the past, it doesn't mean things haven't changed in the present. The reality of 2026 finally stripped the emotion away. My LA rentals are netting about 4-5% after the constant background noise of taxes, insurance spikes, and repairs. Meanwhile, a risk-free Treasury pays 5%. The trade-off just doesn't make sense any more. I’m reallocating to a liquid portfolio that actually lets me focus on the work I love. I published a deep dive on my Substack about the ADU nightmare that broke my patience, the exact numbers behind the exit, and where I’m moving the money next to buy back my sanity. I'll drop the link here in a bit.