Thursday morning news drop
People Moving Out of Toronto Keep Driving Up Real Estate Prices in Other Provinces With Canadian metropolitan hubs like Toronto continuing to bring new meaning to the word "unaffordable," more and moore people are picking up and moving elsewhere in the country, whether out of choice or sheer necessity. Torontonians have become Vancouverites moving thousands of kilometres away to escape the pressure of having to earn over $200k per year. (BlogTo)
The inflation debate could preview the next big shifts in Canadian politics Freeland and Poilievre could be key players when their current bosses step down — or are forced out (CBC)
Carbon emissions to pool noodles: oilsands producers seek a ‘beautiful’ rebrand A leak of the newest industry PR offensive reveals an effort to steer attention away from pollution and toward the potential of carbon capture (Narwhal)
Fattest Profits Since 1950 Debunk Wage-Inflation Story of CEOs. In the second year of a pandemic that began by wiping out 20 million jobs, American workers are doing surprisingly well. It’s just that American business is doing even better. In the past two quarters, U.S. corporations outside of the finance industry posted their fattest margins since 1950 — one reason why stock markets keep hitting all-time highs. (Bloomberg)
The Other Side of a Mania On the other side of every mania lies the reality of the weighing machine. It was always there, lurking in the background, but in the midst of a parabolic, sentiment-driven advance, nothing could seem more irrelevant. Over the past year we’ve seen this story play out in one mania after another. And as long as human beings and their emotions are involved in markets, we’ll see plenty more in the years to come. (Compound Advisors)
Old Trucks for New Money The hunger for beautiful old trucks is a national phenomenon. Prices for vintage trucks rose more than fifty per cent in the past four years, twenty per cent more than the vintage-vehicle market as a whole, according to data from the collectible-car-insurance company Hagerty. The trend was evident well before the current microchip shortage sent used car prices through the roof. (New Yorker)
Twitter Has a New CEO; What About a New Business Model? What makes Twitter such a baffling company to analyze is that the company’s cultural impact so dramatically outweighs its financial results; last quarter Twitter’s $1.3 billion in revenue amounted to 4.4% of Facebook’s $29.0 billion, and yet you can make the case — and I believe it — that Twitter’s overall impact on the world is just as big, if not larger than its drastically larger peer. (Stratechery)
Republicans are quietly rigging election maps to ensure permanent rule The past decade in Ohio shows how bad it can get – and how quickly. Despite the state’s voters often swinging Democratic, 75% of its congressional delegates are Republican (The Guardian)
Baby bust: More Victorians aren’t having kids. Here’s why we should care. Citing the housing crisis, climate anxiety, precarious work, and more, many in Victoria are choosing to delay parenthood or skip it altogether (Capital Daily)
Britney Spears, the Newly Liberated Princess of Pop: In November, five months after a June hearing at which Spears said she felt like a prisoner in the court-ordered conservatorship her father oversaw for almost 14 years, a judge dissolved it. (Businessweek)