Author: openjargon

• Silverleaf Village in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the city's most exclusive and expensive community.
• The residential area boasts Scottsdale's most expensive home, a $54 million mega-mansion.
• I got a private tour of the village with 24-hour guards and a championship golf course.

In the canyons beneath a mountain range dotted with cacti is Silverleaf Village, the most exclusive and expensive residential community in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In a city with a rapidly growing millionaire population, Silverleaf had an average selling price of $5.5 million in 2023, according to a representative of the neighborhood. And it's home to the most expensive residence on the market in Scottsdale — a mega-mansion listed for $54 million.

The village is in the 4,400-acre residential community of DC Ranch. Last month, I got an exclusive tour of the entire neighborhood's four villages, and Silverleaf stood out as the most elite, with custom estates and an exclusive clubhouse.

Take a look around the luxury desert oasis that Scottsdale's richest locals call home.

Silverleaf Village is in North Scottdale.

Silverleaf is on the east side of DC Ranch in North Scottsdale. The village is nestled in the canyons of the McDowell Mountains.

The village has 16 gated neighborhoods.

According to the DC Ranch website, the neighborhoods are guarded 24 hours a day.

The homes are a mix of luxury villas and custom estates.

Silverleaf's street signs have a fancy look, with curled details on the posts and serif fonts. According to the neighborhood's website, the homes were built in Spanish and Mediterranean Revival-style architecture.

The elevated signage, paired with mansions reminiscent of Italian castles and Greek villas, made me feel like I was somewhere in Europe.

Within the village is a private club with a golf course, a spa, pools, and restaurants.

Since the clubhouse is so exclusive, I wasn't able to access it with my media tour guide. But according to the club's website, it's a 50,000-square-foot space with casual and fine dining, a world-class spa, and both resort-style and lap pools.

I did get a peek at the championship golf course. It sprawls 18 holes over 7,322 yards and is surrounded by hills and succulents.

The homes with the highest elevation appeared to be the most luxurious.

Driving up the mountain, I noticed the houses looked more like mega-mansions. They had long, walled driveways leading up to estates with multiple buildings.

The village is still developing.

Toward the top of Silverleaf Village, I spotted several empty sites ready for more custom estates to be built. According to the neighborhood's website, luxury condos are also in the works.

From the top of Silverleaf, residents have a view of Scottsdale.

The top of Silverleaf had the best views in DC Ranch. Past the mansions and cacti dotting the canyon, I spotted golfing greens and a runway at Scottsdale Airport, where the wealthy park private jets.

With massive estates, luxury amenities, and jaw-dropping views, it was easy to see why Silverleaf Village is the most expensive place to live in Scottsdale.

• Amazon Fresh is cutting prices on about 4,000 products through weekly sales.
• Shoppers will be able to get discounts online and at the retailer's stores.
• Walmart and Target have also cut prices as customers deal with the long-term effects of inflation.

Amazon is the latest major retailer to cut grocery prices.

The retail giant will drop prices on about 4,000 items — some by up to 30% — at its Amazon Fresh chain, the company told CNN. The discounts will vary by week and apply both at Fresh stores and on the grocer's website. The lower prices will also affect products from national brands as well as those under Amazon's store brands.

"Increasing our weekly deals across thousands of items and expanding the reach of Prime Savings at Amazon Fresh is just one way that we're continuing to invest in competitive pricing and savings for all of our customers – both in-store and online," Claire Peters, worldwide vice president with Amazon Fresh, told CNN.

Prime members continue to get a 10% discount on hundreds of items, Amazon said.

Amazon has built a network of 44 Fresh stores, according to its website. But along the way, Amazon has closed some Fresh stores and canceled some store openings.

Inflation has been pushing food prices higher over the past few years. And while the rate of price increases has stalled, there have been few signs of groceries actually getting cheaper until recently.

Some consumers have even turned to gardening or extreme couponing to save money on food.

Amazon is the latest retailer to cut prices in an effort to encourage shoppers to buy more.

Last week, Target announced it would cut prices on about 5,000 items after it reported its fourth consecutive quarter of same-store sales declines. The price cuts will apply to a range of groceries and personal care items, from frozen pizza to sunscreen.

Walmart also announced similar reductions earlier this month.

• US law firms are increasingly poaching top UK lawyers.
• Latham & Watkins has been particularly aggressive in its targeting of London-based talent.
• Latham's tactics point to a wider trend in the industry.

US law firms are pushing ahead with their bid to dominate the City of London's legal scene.

Latham & Watkins, the world's second-largest law firm by revenue, is just one such firm targeting the UK market.

Last year, Latham poached top capital markets lawyer Mark Austin from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a member of the "magic circle" — a term used to describe five elite UK law firms.

While he wasn't the first lawyer in the City to depart for a US company, the move for Austin, who had worked on the listings of companies like Deliveroo, was big.

"To get the guy who has the longest IPO list in the country and is now synonymous with the capital markets through his work with the government . . . was a big hire," one partner at a magic circle firm told the Financial Times.

Latham & Watkins now counts almost 500 lawyers in its London office, according to its website. It has lured at least 15 partners from rivals in the City over the last three years, the FT reported.

The firm has also been involved in a number of high-profile deals in the capital this year, including advising UK cybersecurity company Darktrace plc on its $5.3 billion acquisition by Thoma Bravo.

Latham's aggressive plays point to a wider trend in the industry that is seeing elite UK firms forced into submission by more profitable US counterparts.

"The problem for UK firms is that there is only so much truly premium local legal work around," Scott Gibson, a director at London legal recruiting firm Edwards Gibson, told Bloomberg Law.

"As long as US private equity continues to drive the market, the rest of the UK global elite will keep trying to break the US. They have no choice if they want to stay elite," he added.

And thanks to a weakened pound post-Brexit, it has been easier than ever for US firms to attract British legal talent.

Earlier this month, US firm Quinn Emanuel raised its starting salaries for junior lawyers in the UK to £180,000, or nearly $230,000, putting pressure on others to follow suit.

The move followed news that UK firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer had increased base pay for new lawyers to £150,000, which is around $192,000.

Another blow to the magic circle came in May 2023, when another elite UK firm, Allen & Overy, merged with New York-based Shearman & Sterling, creating a huge new firm with around 3,900 lawyers and 800 Partners across 49 offices.

It remains to be seen how the rest of the magic circle will try to keep pace with the US.

• Kyle Bass is investing in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, he said in a recent interview with the Investor's Podcast Network.
• These states should benefit from migration to lower-cost states, a trend that's already happening.
• Bass has been buying rural land to capitalize on demand for environmental credits.

Billionaire investor Kyle Bass is scooping up land in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, touting the states' upside potential as both workers and companies shift to more affordable markets.

"When you think about the US, you look at the coastal region, the West Coast and the Northeast being very high cost, very high tax — one could say mismanaged — jurisdictions," he said in a recent interview with Investor's Podcast Network. "They're moving to pro-business, lower costs, lower, or no-tax jurisdictions." 

Bass' success in real estate is well established. His winning bet against the 2008 housing market was immortalized in the classic book "The Big Short." And his focus on property in lower-cost states is a strategy he's pursued for years now, offering a similar explanation in 2022. 

Between then and last year, Florida's population jumped over 365,000, while Texas grew by more than 473,000, census data shows. Tennessee's population climbed 77,513. 

Meanwhile, the exodus of large firms from states such as California and New York has weighed heavily on those markets, with $1 trillion worth of assets having moved away over the past three years, Bloomberg found.

"You have to move real companies where there's affordability, where there's expansive activity, where there are natural resources to accommodate that movement, so I want to buy real estate in front of that macro movement," the Hayman Capital founder said. 

But Bass' attention on land doesn't stop there. By expanding his holdings, he's also looking to capitalize on environmental mitigation, a market that sells credit to firms that want to offset the ecological impact of their operations.

To that end, Bass established Conservation Equity Management in 2021, a private equity firm that sells federal credits in exchange for services such as wetland repair on owned property.

"As more companies and people move to Texas and other pro-business, low-tax states, there will be devastating environmental consequences, forcing firms to consider their physical environmental impacts, carbon footprints and mitigation options," he said in 2022.

By September of that year, the firm had snapped up $90 million worth of properties in Texas alone, Bloomberg reported. By then, the price-per-acre of rural land had appreciated 123% over the decade, the outlet cited.

But price appreciation isn't Bass' only reason for buying so much land. He also touted property investments as a significant hedge against macroeconomic uncertainties. He previously noted a preference for land over gold as a safe haven.

"When I think about gold versus rural land again, I have the population demographic in my tailwind," he said in 2022. "I also have something that I can drive to."

As to forthcoming risks, Bass' main concern is China. He says economic turmoil in the country, as well as the threat of geopolitical fallout with the US, offers little room for market positivity.

This story was originally published in March 2024.

• Russia's economy can't afford to win or lose the war in Ukraine, one economist says.
• That's because Russia can't afford the cost of rebuilding and securing Ukraine.
• The cost of repairing its own nation is already "massive," Renaud Foucart says.

Russia's economy is completely dominated by its war in Ukraine, so much that Moscow cannot afford either to win or lose the war, according to one European economist.

Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at Lancaster University, pointed to the dire economic situation facing Russia as the war in Ukraine wraps up its second year. 

Russia's GDP grew 5.5% year-over-year over the third quarter of 2023, according to data from the Russian government. But most of that growth is being fueled by the nation's monster military spending, Foucart said, with plans for the Kremlin to spend a record 36.6 trillion rubles, or $386 billion on defense this year.

"Military pay, ammunition, tanks, planes, and compensation for dead and wounded soldiers, all contribute to the GDP figures. Put simply, the war against Ukraine is now the main driver of Russia's economic growth" Foucart said in an op-ed for The Conversation this week.

Other areas of Russia's economy are hurting as the war drags on. Moscow is slammed with a severe labor shortage, thanks to young professionals fleeing the country or being pulled into the conflict. The nation is now short around 5 million workers, according to one estimate, which is causing wages to soar.

Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its central bank. Meanwhile, direct investment in the country has collapsed, falling around $8.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2023, per data from Russia's central bank.

That all puts the Kremlin in a tough position, no matter the outcome of the war in Ukraine. Even if Russia wins, the nation can't afford to rebuild and secure Ukraine, due to the financial costs as well as the impact of remaining isolated from the rest of the global market. 

Western nations have shunned trade with Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, which economists have said could severely crimp Russia's long-term economic growth.

As long as it remains isolated, Russia's "best hope" is to become "entirely dependent" on China, one of its few remaining strategic allies, Foucart said.

Meanwhile, the costs of rebuilding its own nation are already "massive," he added, pointing to problems like broken infrastructure and social unrest in Russia.

"A protracted stalemate might be the only solution for Russia to avoid total economic collapse," Foucart wrote. "The Russian regime has no incentive to end the war and deal with that kind of economic reality. So it cannot afford to win the war, nor can it afford to lose it. Its economy is now entirely geared towards continuing a long and ever deadlier conflict."

Other economists have warned of trouble coming for Russia amid the toll of its war in Ukraine. Russia's economy will see significantly more degradation ahead, one London-based think tank recently warned, despite talk of Russia's resilience in the face of Western sanctions.

This story was originally published in February 2024.

• The US economy could see a surge in growth as more people start to take GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
• Goldman Sachs predicted that US GDP could jump by 1% if 60 million Americans took a GLP-1 drug.
• Goldman Sachs also said that "poor health imposes significant economic costs."

The more people who take GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, the faster the US economy could grow, a Goldman Sachs analyst said in a note last month. 

The US GDP could grow by an extra 1% if 60 million Americans took GLP-1 drugs by 2028, Jan Hatzius, the chief economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote.

Hatzius said health-related problems keep people from participating in the labor force and inhibit economic growth. Obesity increases the risk of serious health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes.

"Combining current losses in hours worked and labor force participation from sickness and disability, early deaths, and informal caregiving, we estimate that GDP would potentially be over 10% higher if poor health outcomes did not limit labor supply in the US," Hatzius said.

So drugs that have shown promise in improving a range of patient health outcomes could have a sizable impact on the broader economy.

"The main reason we see meaningful upside from healthcare innovation is that poor health imposes significant economic costs. There are several channels through which poor health weighs on economic activity that could diminish if health outcomes improve," Hatzius said.

GLP-1 drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company are sold under the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro to treat type 2 diabetes, and under the names Wegovy and Zepbound to treat obesity.

Sales of the drugs have exploded, with some users seeing drastic weight loss of up to 20%. A study released in August found that patients who took Wegovy for weight loss reduced their risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death by 20%.

And with the US obesity rate hovering at around 40%, tens of millions of Americans could be prescribed GLP-1 drugs over the next few years, but just how many will depend on the outcome of clinical trials on these drugs and whether health insurers will cover them.

"If GLP-1 usage ultimately increases by this amount and results in lower obesity rates, we see scope for significant spillovers to the broader economy," Hatzius said.

One spillover effect could be an increase in productivity, Hatzius said, citing academic studies that found obese individuals are less likely to work and to be less productive at work

"These estimates therefore suggest that obesity-related health complications subtract over 3% from per-capita output, implying an over 1% hit to total output when combined with the over 40% incidence of obesity in the US population," Hatzius said. 

And if there are more productivity gains via improved health outcomes, the impact on GDP growth in excess of its current trend could be between 0.6% and 3.2%.

"Historically, health advancements have lowered the number of life years lost to disease and disability by 10% per decade in DM economies, and we estimate that a 10-year step forward in health progress in excess of current trends could raise the level of US GDP by 1%," Hatzius said.

This story was originally published in March 2024.

• Sam Altman says he didn't know OpenAI had non-disparagement clauses in exit deals.
• But a follow-up Vox report suggests Altman may have known, citing leaked documents and ex-staffers.
• Silicon Valley types are voicing their skepticism of whether Altman was being entirely truthful. 

Silicon Valley types are skeptical about whether Sam Altman knew OpenAI had non-disparagement clauses in its exit agreements.

Tech firm workers have weighed in on the recent chaos at OpenAI after a bombshell Vox report said that the ChatGPT maker could take back vested equity from departing employees if they didn't sign non-disparagement agreements.

Sam Altman took to X soon after the report was published, writing: "This is on me and one of the few times i've been genuinely embarrassed running openai; i did not know this was happening and i should have."

The claims against OpenAI didn't go down well in the tech community, and some were unconvinced that Altman was being entirely honest.

Another story published by Vox on Wednesday, citing unnamed former OpenAI employees and leaked documents, seemed to bring into question Altman's claim that he was out of the loop.

Vox published a document showing the OpenAI chief signed incorporation documents for the holding company that handles OpenAI's equity. According to the report, some former staffers were given just seven days to sign separation agreements.

Naveen Rao, vice president of generative AI at DataBricks, wrote that "there's just no way senior leaders didn't know about these separation terms."

Neel Nanda, who leads Google DeepMind's safety research team, said it looked like OpenAI was caught in a "series of public lies," while Nils Reimers, director of machine learning at Cohere, said it was "unacceptable behavior" by OpenAI.

Meta researcher Soumith Chintala praised the follow-up Vox report, saying it brought "receipts that it wasn't just some standard exit paperwork from OpenAI."

Former OpenAI employee Jacob Hilton, meanwhile, posted a thread on X on Friday stating that he left a year ago and that he signed a non-disparagement agreement.

He also said he signed a separate non-disclosure about the agreement so he wouldn't lose his vested equity.

"The agreement was unambiguous that in return for signing, I was being allowed to keep my vested equity, and offered nothing more," he wrote, "I do not see why anyone would have signed it if they had thought it would have no impact on their equity."

Hilton added that OpenAI contacted him a day earlier to release him from the agreement as a result of Vox's report.

OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside normal working hours.

• Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York, belonged to three elite New York City families.
• Completed in 1842, the Gothic Revival mansion spans 14,000 square feet.
• The Max show "The Gilded Age" was filmed inside the mansion and on the 67-acre grounds.

Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York, once belonged to three of New York City's wealthiest, most elite families. Now, it's a museum and an occasional film set for the Max show "The Gilded Age."

Located around 26 miles from New York City, the mansion was built by former New York City mayor William Paulding Jr. and completed in 1842. It was subsequently purchased by merchant George Merritt and railroad tycoon Jay Gould.

Take a look inside the historic home, including a behind-the-scenes look at its onscreen appearances in "The Gilded Age."

Once a lavish summer escape for New York City's elite families, Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York, is now a museum.

I booked an hourlong Classic Mansion Tour, which costs $25 and visits 16 rooms. The full list of tour offerings is available on Lyndhurst Mansion's website.

Seasons one and two of the Max show "The Gilded Age" were filmed inside Lyndhurst Mansion and on the 67-acre grounds.

On "The Gilded Age," Lyndhurst appears as the home of characters Charles and Aurora Fane, played by Ward Horton and Kelli O'Hara.

The estate grounds also served as Sheep Meadow in Central Park in the show.

The Carriage House, where horses were fed and groomed, is now the museum's Welcome Center.

Built in the 1860s, the carriage house's horse stables have been reimagined as booths.

The gift shop was once the tack room where bridles and saddles were kept.

The original metal hooks on the walls that once held saddlery now help display the assortment of clothes, accessories, and other merchandise sold in the gift shop.

Part of the Carriage House was also transformed into The New York Globe office for "The Gilded Age."

The New York Globe was a Black newspaper founded by Timothy Thomas Fortune, played by Sullivan Jones in "The Gilded Age."

When the show isn't filming there, the space functions as a screening room in the Welcome Center.

Visitors can watch an educational video about Lyndhurst Mansion and its history.

The tour began outside the mansion, where our guide spoke about the three families that owned the property: the Pauldings, the Merritts, and the Goulds.

In 1836, former New York City mayor William Paulding and his wife, New York real-estate heiress Maria Rhinelander Paulding, purchased the land overlooking the Hudson River to build a summer home.

Architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed the home and much of its furniture. Construction began in 1838 and was completed in 1842.

In 1864, the Pauldings' son sold the mansion to George Merritt, who made his fortune as the patent holder of a rubber spring used in railroad cars, and his wife, Julia. The Merritts rehired Davis to design an addition to the home, doubling its square footage.

After George's death, Julia sold it in 1880 to Jay Gould, a railroad tycoon and businessman who was one of the wealthiest figures of the Gilded Age, and his wife, Helen Day Miller. Adjusted for inflation, his net worth totaled approximately $71.2 billion.

Gould's daughter, Helen Gould, then took ownership of the property, followed by his youngest daughter, Anna Gould, who married a French aristocrat and spent most of her adult life abroad. After her death, Anna left the Lyndhurst estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which manages the site today.

The name "Lyndhurst" came from the Linden trees that the Merritts planted on the property.

The Linden trees still grow on the grounds today.

We then moved into the porte-cochère, the enclosed doorway where residents boarded and disembarked from horse-drawn carriages.

The Merritts had Davis enclose the open porte-cochère from the Pauldings' era of the house with floor-to-ceiling doors and windows and construct a second porte-cochère outside.

The grand entryway featured a marble floor and four closets.

Closets were a sign of wealth, indicating that the owners could afford to use a room's valuable real estate for storage, the tour guide said.

The walls and the ceiling looked like marble, but they were actually handpainted plaster, another sign of wealth.

The Merritts could have afforded real marble, but it was more expensive to decorate with faux finishing than actual stone, making it a status symbol for their wealth.

The Parlor, also known as the Drawing Room, was used for family gatherings and entertaining.

All of the furniture is original to the Pauldings, the home's first owners from 1842, except for the cabinet in the bay window.

A portrait of George Washington hung in a corner of the Parlor.

The piece was painted by American artist Rembrandt Peale.

"The Gilded Age" transformed the room for scenes in the show, though the same blue patterned carpet is still visible.

"The Gilded Age" brought all of its own furniture in for filming since the existing furniture pieces are valuable artifacts original to the home.

The formal Dining Room, added as part of the Merritts' renovation, featured a hexagon-shaped table designed by Davis.

Staff prepared food in a downstairs kitchen, brought it up on a dumbwaiter, and plated it in a butler's pantry off to the side of the room.

The fireplace was made of red-grain marble, but its columns were handpainted with a marble pattern over plaster and wood.

The walls were also hand-stenciled to look like they were covered with leather wallpaper.

The Dining Room featured stunning views of the Hudson River.

The Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge would not have been visible in the Gilded Age since it was completed in 2018.

Scenes from "The Gilded Age" were shot in the Dining Room.

The Dining Room appears in episode three of the first season of "The Gilded Age."

One of the mansion's grandest rooms was the enormous Art Gallery on the second floor.

Priceless paintings covered nearly every surface of the walls.

The Pauldings originally used the room as a library.

When the Merritts moved in, they turned the Pauldings' old dining room into their library and built the new dining room as part of the expansion.

The Lyndhurst guide called Gould's art collection "one of the finest intact Gilded Age art collections in the country."

Gould's collection included pieces from French, German, and Spanish artists.

The State Bedroom off the Art Gallery was considered the best guest room in the house.

The room featured a Tiffany & Co. stained-glass window.

A bathroom in the hallway was furnished with pink double sinks sourced from Trenton, New Jersey.

The bathroom also included a claw-foot tub and rain-style shower.

Gould's daughter, Anna Gould, redecorated her late sister Helen's girlhood room and turned it into a guest room.

Anna Gould continued to sleep in her childhood bedroom when she visited Lyndhurst.

Before electricity, Lyndhurst's wealthy residents used speaking tubes in the walls to communicate with servants.

The tubes connected to the butler's pantry downstairs.

Back downstairs, the estate office contained one of the mansion's most valuable artifacts: Gould's "laptop."

Gould's 100-pound Wooton desk, known today as his "laptop," held all of his business paperwork and accompanied him to work in New York City every day.

Gould refused to take the railroad to work because it was owned by his archrivals, the Vanderbilts.

Even though the railroad passed right by Lyndhurst Mansion, Gould commuted with his desk down the Hudson River on his steam yacht called the Atalanta. The journey took around 45 minutes.

The Vanderbilts also owned a mansion upstate during the Gilded Age in Hyde Park, New York.

Once the mansion tour concluded, the guide encouraged us to spend some time exploring the grounds.

The property is full of walking trails, gardens, and scenic picnic spots with views of the Hudson.

I could see why the estate stood in for Central Park in "The Gilded Age."

The wooded paths, park benches, and grass lawns looked just like Central Park.

While walking along the river, I stopped inside the bowling alley built for Helen Gould in 1894.

The bowling alley can be rented for special events where guests bowl with the lightest possible balls to help preserve the historic space, according to The National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Lyndhurst Mansion and its sprawling estate are worth a visit even if you've never seen "The Gilded Age."

With so many notable residents and original furnishings, the home preserves the opulence of the real Gilded Age.

• I ranked double cheeseburgers from 12 different fast-food chains.
• White Castle surprised me with its small, cheap, and super-flavorful sliders.
• I thought In-N-Out's famous Double-Double was great value and undeniably delicious.

A classic double cheeseburger is a fast-food staple, but which chain has the best one?

May 28 marks National Burger Day, but burgers remain one of the most popular foods in the US throughout the rest of the year. A 2023 report by Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation found that 79% of Americans order burgers at restaurants at least once a month, while Forbes reported McDonald's is one of the most valuable brands in the world.

Over the years, I've tried practically every fast-food double cheeseburger on the market. For a definitive ranking, I tried double cheeseburgers from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Shake Shack, White Castle, Whataburger, P. Terry's, Five Guys, Cook Out, Checkers, Sonic, and In-N-Out.

Here's every fast-food double cheeseburger ranked from worst to best.

My least favorite double cheeseburger was from Burger King. It cost me $3.89.

The burger was under $5, but I'm not sure it was worth the price.

It comes with two of the chain's beef patties, American cheese, pickles, mustard, and ketchup on a sesame-seed bun.

It comes with one slice of cheese.

This burger was super filling, but I liked the other burgers I tried more.

Right away, I tasted the thick beef patties. The burger had traveled a little more than 15 minutes from my local Burger King to my apartment, but the meat was still juicy and the cheese nicely melted.

The pickle slices were thick and crunchy, and I enjoyed the sesame-seed bun, which added a nice textural element. But I thought there was just a little too much ketchup, which will likely vary depending on who's making your burger that day.

It was also a little heavy for my liking. It filled me up a little more than I had anticipated before jumping into the rest of the burger comparison. Still, for a burger that costs just under $4, that might be more of an asset than a hindrance if you want a filling, inexpensive lunch.

Next was Wendy's double cheeseburger, which the chain calls a Double Stack. I ordered it for $4.49.

It was about the same price as the burgers from McDonald's and Burger King, though it landed squarely in the middle in terms of value.

A Wendy's double cheeseburger comes with two junior-size hamburger patties, American cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and sweet onion.

The toppings looked a little stingy, and they were clustered in the middle of the sandwich. I would have liked to see them more spread out.

The burger bun was fluffy and light, and the toppings had a ton of flavor.

But I had to get a few bites in to reach the toppings in the center.

The toppings themselves were amazing. I thought the pickles were the most flavorful out of the burgers I tried, and I liked the use of an onion ring rather than diced onion, although I would've liked more.

The McDonald's double cheeseburger cost me $5.79.

It was slightly more expensive than Wendy's version but had more toppings. It came with an extra slice of American cheese plus chopped onions, and I thought it was still relatively affordable.

The double cheeseburger from McDonald's comes with two beef patties, pickles, chopped onions, ketchup, mustard, and two slices of American cheese.

I was interested to see if the added toppings would amp up the flavor.

I thought the ingredients came together well in this burger, but the bun was a little lackluster.

The bun held everything together and was a good size, but it was a little too soft and didn't have a lot of flavor on its own. But I enjoyed the amount of condiments and didn't find them overpowering.

The chopped onions added a lot of flavor, and the burger patties were juicy despite being thinner than the Burger King ones. I liked the added cheese but didn't think it was necessary.

In ninth place was the double-meat Whataburger with cheese.

It costs $9 at a Whataburger in Austin, excluding tax and fees.

I ordered it with a large bun, American cheese, grilled peppers and onions, pickles, and ketchup.

The burger was a decent size and I could see the gooey cheese peeking out from underneath the soft potato bun. 

Unlike the other double cheeseburgers, this burger had sliced jalapeño peppers that I imagined would add quite the kick.

The ingredients definitely set this burger apart from the others.

I thought the burgers had a delightfully crispy texture to them, and the toppings added a ton of flavor.

The bun was light and fluffy, but I did think the burger patties could have been a little thicker and juicier.

Coming in eighth was the double cheeseburger from P. Terry's Burger Stand, a regional chain I visited in Austin, Texas.

The burger cost only $5, making it one of the cheaper burgers I tried.

Despite being less expensive than the Whataburger double cheeseburger, the P. Terry's burger was larger.

I ordered it with pickles, onions, ketchup, mustard, and American cheese.

I again thought the cheese could have been more melted, but the size definitely made up for that small detail.

One of the benefits of ordering from P. Terry's is that you can easily customize your burger and add a number of toppings including grilled onions, the chain's special sauce, tomato, lettuce, and more.

I thought the burgers were juicy and the pickles had a tart crunch to them.

The bun was slightly underwhelming, but I thought it was an excellent, large burger with tons of flavor, especially for the low price. I also thought the mustard really came through and added a lot to the burger.

The double cheeseburger from Shake Shack was the second most expensive burger I tried.

I paid $12.49 for a double cheeseburger. I could customize my toppings, but I went with pickles, onions, and Shack sauce.

Right away, I thought the burger was massive.

The burger patties were perfectly crispy on the outside and covered in gooey melted cheese. The pickles also looked large and homemade. It was even heavy to pick up.

The toppings were generous and the chain's signature Shack sauce, which is a mayo-based sauce with a slight mustard flavor, made it really tasty.

The cheese was thick and perfectly melted.

However, biting into the Shake Shack burger was a little overwhelming, in my opinion.

The burger was huge, which was both an asset and a hindrance. I struggled to get through more than a few bites.

However, despite being the second most expensive burger, I thought it was worth the price. The burger patties were much thicker than the other burgers I tried, and the toppings took it over the edge in terms of flavor.

Overall, I was impressed … but stuffed.

In sixth place was the double-decker burger with cheese from Checkers.

The burger has since been replaced with the Big Buford, which has all the same ingredients but a bakery-style bun instead of a sesame-seed bun. The burger costs $7.69 at my local Checkers in Brooklyn.

I thought this burger was a little pricey for the size.

It was smaller than my hand, though it did include a variety of toppings like tomato, lettuce, and red onion. The burger also comes with American cheese, dill pickles, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise on a toasted bun.

The burger patties were very juicy and the toppings tasted fresh.

I also thought the American cheese was very tangy and flavorful. Overall, I enjoyed the combination of flavors. However, the price prevented this burger from ranking higher. 

I also tried the double cheese slider from White Castle.

White Castle sliders tend to be eaten in pairs, so I ordered two. Each burger cost me $3.55, so I ended up paying $7.10.

The burgers were small but packed with flavor.

The burgers smelled strongly of onions and condiments the second I removed them from the bag.

The amount of toppings on each burger was generous.

The pickles were crunchy and flavorful. Though the burgers each had a bun sandwiched in the middle of the burger, it wasn't too bready — instead, it allowed the flavors to really come together while still being filling.

I was blown away by the cheeseburgers from White Castle, a result I admittedly wasn't expecting.

As the cheapest and smallest burgers, I was expecting them to be a little lackluster. However, I found that good things definitely come in small packages. The onions, condiments, and pickles were flavorful, but it was the beef that really impressed me.

The small-but-mighty burger was one of the most flavorful out of the ones I tried, easy to eat, and perfectly priced. 

My fourth-favorite double cheeseburger was from Five Guys.

Five Guys doesn't technically have a "double cheeseburger" — its regular cheeseburgers already come with two slices of cheese and two beef patties.

My burger cost $13.55, excluding taxes and fees, making it the most expensive burger I tried.

I was able to customize my toppings, but I ordered the burger with pickles, grilled onions, ketchup, and mustard.

Right away, I noticed that the toppings were generous. The pickle slices were large, and none of the toppings cost extra to add.

The burger was large without being too intimidating.

I thought it was a perfect size. It required two hands to pick up and eat, but it wasn't as heavy as the burger from Shake Shack. Slices of melted American cheese coated each burger, and there wasn't so much sauce that it dripped out from underneath the sesame-seed buns.

The burger patties were crispy on the outside but juicy on the inside.

I thought the pickle slices were thick, crunchy, and tart. I also really enjoyed the choice of a sesame-seed bun — it added a bit of texture to each and every bite.

The grilled onions also really impressed me. They were soft and almost caramelized, adding a lot of flavor that I didn't get from any other burger.

My third-favorite double cheeseburger came from Sonic Drive-In.

The SuperSonic double cheeseburger was the only burger I tried that came with lettuce and tomato. Since this was the default option, I decided to try it with these toppings rather than specifically remove them. 

The burger cost me $9.75, excluding taxes and fees.

The burger came with a hearty serving of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, two slices of cheese, diced onions, pickles, mayonnaise, and ketchup.

Unlike Sonic's quarter-pound double cheeseburger, which comes with two junior patties, the full-size burger has a combined half-pound of meat. 

The bun was perfectly soft but still held the sauce-covered burger together.

The ingredients tasted fresh and vibrant. The tomato wasn't too watery, the lettuce was crisp, and the burgers tasted well-seasoned and juicy. Plus, the burger was a very generous size. 

However, despite all these accolades, I thought the price was a little steep compared to what I got from Cook Out and In-N-Out.

My second-favorite double cheeseburger came from Cook Out, a regional chain I visited in South Carolina.

You can order a "big double" from Cook Out any way you wish, but I ordered mine with cheese, ketchup, mustard, onions, and pickles. It cost me $4.99, not including tax.

The burger came wrapped in foil and featured two juicy patties.

It also had thick slices of fresh onion and large pickle spears layered on top of the burger.

For the price, I thought the burger was out of this world.

The cheese slices were thick and tangy, and the burger was perfectly moist and medium-rare. It was also very large, and, after already eating dinner, I struggled to get through more than a few bites, though I kept wanting to go back for more.

At an amazingly low price, this burger definitely earned the second-to-top spot on my ranking.

In my opinion, the best double cheeseburger I tried was the famous Double-Double burger from In-N-Out.

It cost me $4.90, which I thought was an excellent deal for the large burger sitting in front of me. One of the first things I noticed was how thick the burger patties were — they were much thicker than other burgers I tried at a similar price point.

Most Double-Double burgers come with lettuce, tomato, onions, and spread.

To keep my burger similar to the other burgers I tried, I ordered it with onions, pickles, and spread, which I thought tasted similar to Thousand Island dressing.

The first thing I noticed about the In-N-Out burger was how juicy the burger patties were, followed by the incredible layers of cheese.

The cheese slices were perfectly melted and coated each part of the burger, something I couldn't say about any other burger I tried.

The bun was perfectly soft and held everything together perfectly, while the special spread had my mouth watering for another bite.

Of all the burgers I tried, I thought the In-N-Out double cheeseburger packed the most flavor for the best price.

When it came to a double cheeseburger, the West-Coast chain really nailed it. The burger was beyond flavorful, the perfect size, and, in my opinion, very good value for money.

The next time I'm in a state with an In-N-Out, I know where I'll be filling my burger craving.

• A submersible imploded as it descended to view the wreck of the Titanic last year.
• All five passengers on board the OceanGate vessel were killed in the incident.
• Two men are now planning a trip in a new submersible to try to prove the industry is safe.

An Ohio real-estate investor is planning to take a two-person submersible down to Titanic-level depths to prove that the journey can be carried out safely following the Titan sub implosion last year.

The investor, Larry Connor, told The Wall Street Journal: "I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way."

He is working with Patrick Lahey, the cofounder and CEO of submersible manufacturer Triton Submarines.

The pair aims to show that such an expedition can be carried out repeatedly and safely despite the implosion of the OceanGate sub last June, which killed all five people on board, including the company's CEO, Stockton Rush.

Lahey said that Connor rang him a few days after the implosion and said: "'You know, what we need to do is build a sub that can dive to [Titanic-level depths] repeatedly and safely and demonstrate to the world that you guys can do that, and that Titan was a contraption.'"

Connor, who has previously been to the Mariana Trench, the deepest oceanic trench on Earth, said they plan to do the journey in a two-person vessel called the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, named "4000" for the depth in meters it can reach. He did not say when the trip will take place.

Lahey was one of the many industry figures who criticized OceanGate before and after the disaster, accusing it of questionable safety standards.

After the implosion, he described Rush's approach to convincing people to get on board as "quite predatory."

Others in the industry and the company also voiced their concerns.

A former chief submersible pilot for the company said years before the fatal incident that he was worried Rush would get himself and others killed in a "quest to boost his ego."

Filmmaker and Titanic explorer James Cameron also weighed in, saying he and some engineers had warned OceanGate officials that the Titan could lead to "catastrophic failure."

The waiver that Titan passengers were required to sign mentioned multiple ways that passengers could die and described the vessel as "experimental" three times.

Previous passengers had also described errors, failed trips, and feeling unsafe.

CBS News' David Pogue said his trip on the submersible was canceled after the Titan reached 37 feet due to an equipment malfunction, while one diver who made it to the wreckage said there were multiple aborted attempts, calling it a "suicide mission."

Nevertheless, Rush and his company repeatedly defended the submersible and its design.

The subsequent disaster raised concerns about the industry, with some experts calling on the industry to reassess taking people to such a remote location.

But Lahey said he believed that OceanGate's problems weren't reflective of the wider industry, saying that classed submersibles are considered to be very safe due to the extensive testing they undergo.

Rob McCallum — a former OceanGate consultant who had warned Rush about the safety of the Titan — agreed with that assessment.

"In that sense, OceanGate didn't make the industry look bad," McCallum told the Journal. "It made us look good."