What we’re reading (5/23)
“A Housing Bust Comes For Thousands Of Small-Time Investors” (Wall Street Journal). “Over the past four years, Gajavelli built his real-estate empire using funds from dozens of small investors who wanted a chance to earn a landlord’s riches without any of the work. He pitched double-your-money returns in ebullient, can-do talks at investor conferences and on YouTube videos…In April, Gajavelli’s company lost more than 3,000 apartments at four rental complexes taken in foreclosure, one of the biggest commercial real-estate blowups since the financial crisis. Investors lost millions. Gajavelli didn’t respond to requests for comment.”
“It’s About To Get Incredibly Expensive To Watch Sports” (Intelligencer). “For years, all of you non-sports fans have been subsidizing us: By paying your hidden eight bucks a month for a channel you didn’t watch, you allowed us to pay the same amount for channels we watched obsessively. But if ESPN, the unquestioned T.Rex of the sports media world, is separating from the cable model, that eight bucks a month will have to be made up from somewhere. The plan appears to be charging me, and my fellow sports addicts, a lot more.”
“The Surprising Reason Luxury Goods Are Booming” (Vox). “The pandemic was a period of mass unemployment and economic hardship for many Americans. It was also a riotously popular time for buying luxury goods. ‘2021 and 2022 were blockbuster years for the luxury industry,’ says Lauren Sherman, fashion correspondent at Puck News. ‘The biggest years they’ve ever had — ever.’”
“Why Inflation Erupted: Two Top Economists Have The Answer” (Wall Street Journal). “Now two of the country’s top economists have an answer: It’s both. Pandemic-related supply shocks explain why inflation shot up in 2021. An economy overheated by fiscal stimulus and low interest rates explain why it has stayed high ever since. The conclusion: For inflation to fade, the economy has to cool off, which means a weaker labor market.”
“Former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke Says There’s More Work Ahead To Control Inflation” (CNBC). “Former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, who guided the central bank and the U.S. economy through the Great Recession, thinks central bankers still have work to do to bring down inflation. That work, he and economist Olivier Blanchard argue in an academic paper released Tuesday, will entail slowing down what has been a phenomenally resilient labor market.”
