Monday morning news drop
Why is lumber so expensive right now? An illustrated explainer of the factors driving up the market. (The Hustle)
Yes, Real Estate Prices Are Soaring, and No, It’s Not a Bubble The parallels are hard to ignore: the record prices, the bidding wars, the subdivisions that fill up as soon as they’re built, the resourceful buyer who clinched a deal by dropping off cupcakes that matched the home’s interior paint colors. Today’s real estate market feels a lot like the bubble market circa 2006. There’s one very big difference between then and now, though: Mortgage loans are much harder to get. (Businessweek)
There’s a New Vision for Crypto, and It’s Wildly Different From Bitcoin Give Bitcoin some credit: A nearly $1 trillion asset has been memed into existence, despite being backed by nothing. The market is still treating the rest of the crypto space as a monolith. It’s time for that to change. (Bloomberg)
There’s A Stark Red-Blue Divide When It Comes To States’ Vaccination Rates “The top 22 states (including D.C.) with the highest adult vaccination rates all went to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election … Trump won 17 of the 18 states with the lowest adult vaccination rates.” (NPR)
Why I’m Not Worried U.S. Household Debt Is At Record Highs For once it’s not just the top 10% or even the top 1% who are better off. Wealth for the bottom 50% is at an all-time high:; The same is true for the 50th to 90th percentile. (Wealth of Common Sense)
World’s Richest Face Tax Squeeze After 40% Run-Up in Fortunes The world’s wealthiest 500 individuals are now worth $8.4 trillion, up more than 40% in the year and a half since the global pandemic began its devastation. Meanwhile, the economy’s biggest winners, the tech corporations that created many of these vast fortunes, pay lower tax rates than grocery clerks, and their mega-wealthy founders can exploit legal loopholes to pass huge windfalls onto heirs largely tax-free. (Bloomberg)
King of Cards: As a new generation gets into sports memorabilia, Ken Goldin — market maker, evangelist, therapist — is cashing in on priceless pieces of cardboard. (Businessweek)