Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th be with you for our Tuesday morning train WFH reads:
• Fried-Chicken Craze Is Causing U.S. to Run Low on Poultry Chicken, which is the most popular meat in the U.S., is finding a new level of demand after Popeyes introduced a sandwich in 2019 that went viral and sold out in weeks. The frenzy has now caught on at other chains as well, with McDonald’s Corp. and KFC, owned by Yum! Brands Inc., reporting this week that their new fried-chicken sandwiches are selling well beyond expectations. (Bloomberg) see also America is running low on chicken. Blame covid-19, a sandwich craze and huge appetite for wings. It seems the poultry paucity has arrived, heralded by a series of fast-food executives describing in earnings calls their stores’ struggles to stock enough chicken — nuggets, tenders, wings, patties, all shapes and sizes — to keep pace with legions of peckish Americans. (Washington Post)
• Millions Are Saying No to the Vaccines. What Are They Thinking? Feelings about the vaccine are intertwined with feelings about the pandemic: The no-vaxxers I spoke with just don’t care. They’ve traveled, eaten in restaurants, gathered with friends inside, gotten COVID-19 or not gotten COVID-19, survived, and decided it was no big deal. What’s more, they’ve survived while flouting the advice of the CDC, the WHO, Anthony Fauci, Democratic lawmakers, and liberals, whom they don’t trust to give them straight answers on anything virus-related.(The Atlantic)
• Americans Can’t Get Enough of the Stock Market Americans are all in on the stock market. Individual investors are holding more stocks than ever before as major indexes climb to fresh highs. They are also upping the ante by borrowing to magnify their bets or increasingly buying on small dips in the market. Households increased stockholdings to 41% of their total financial assets in April (Wall Street Journal) see also TikTok Is the Place To Go for Financial Advice If You’re a Young Adult TikTok is the place to go for new dances, viral taco recipes—and, now, financial advice. The big benefit of TikTok is that it allows users to dole out and obtain information in short, easily digestible video bites (called TikToks). And that can make unfamiliar, complex topics, such as those related to personal finance and investing, more palatable to a younger audience. But can TikTok users, many of whom are in their teens, 20s or early 30s, trust the financial advice that is increasingly being offered on the social-media platform? (Wall Street Journal)
• Why the Plan to Raise Taxes for Rich Investors Isn’t Hurting Stocks Investors have largely shrugged off President Biden’s proposal to raise taxes on investment income for wealthy Americans, as the stock market hovers near record highs after news of a strong economic rebound and blockbuster earnings reports. The indifference is well founded, analysts say. Investors care more about economic data and corporate profits than an increase in the capital gains tax. It has usually been this way. (New York Times)
• More Americans Are Leaving Cities, But Don’t Call It an Urban Exodus A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, after much speculation about emptied downtowns and the prospect of remote work, the clearest picture yet is emerging about how people moved. There is no urban exodus; perhaps it’s more of an urban shuffle. Despite talk of mass moves to Florida and Texas, data shows most people who did move stayed close to where they came from—although Sun Belt regions that were popular even before the pandemic did see gains. (Bloomberg) see also City Councils Are Villains of the Housing Crisis Why does this system yield bad results? It’s not rocket science. New housing, subsidized or otherwise, may help alleviate citywide problems with homelessness, overcrowding, affordability, and a dwindling tax base. But it may exacerbate neighborhood-level problems such as traffic, classroom size, and a shortage of parking. By devolving decision-making to individual neighborhoods, cities have internally recreated the fragmented, selfish governance pattern that characterizes their suburbs. (Slate)
• New York City Is Roaring Back to Life, One Year After Its Nadir When the pandemic emptied NYC’s streets last year, some declared it dead. But after a terrible, painful year, it’s now defying those declarations. (Bloomberg)
• Joe Biden is about to test the politics of going big The administration’s theory of policy so far is to go big. The same goes for its politics. Taken together, President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan and newly introduced $1.8 trillion American Families Plan come out to slightly over $4 trillion in proposed new spending. It’s an enormous investment in American job creation. (Vox) see also 17 Metrics to Watch in the Biden Era Pledging to “resolve the cascading crises of our era,” from the ongoing pandemic and its accompanying economic devastation to festering racial injustice and the existential threat posed by climate change, Joe Biden’s first 100 days have brought bold legislative proposals, they also laid bare the partisan divisions that make challenges like immigration reform more daunting. We take the long view and offer metrics by which to judge the new president moving forward. (We’ll track them in the coming months). (Bloomberg)
• Cheney slams Trump’s attempt to brand 2020 election ‘the Big Lie,’ sparking new calls for her to leave GOP leadership Cheney (R-Wyo.) brushed aside warnings after Trump issued a statement attempting to commandeer the term “Big Lie,” commonly used to refer to the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, by asserting that the term should now refer to President Biden’s election victory. “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” (Washington Post)
• Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy. (New York Times) But see also The U.S. Has the Power to Tamp Down Coronavirus Variants — If We’re Willing to Use It We’re in a race against mutations all around the world. The fastest way to speed vaccination is to let other countries manufacture the vaccines developed by Operation Warp Speed. (Politico)
• Are we really in for a summer of love? How horny will post-vaccine summer really be? A post-vaccine dating investigation. Dating podcasters, condom companies, bartenders, and college students weigh in on the horny months to come. (Vox)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this past weekend with Jonathan Miller, co-founder of Miller Samuel. Miller is the go-to expert on real-estate appraisals and transactions, running one of the most prominent real-estate data analytics firm, and their data engine powers numerous real estate brokerage research nationally. He is also sought after as the go-to appraiser for many of the most expensive penthouses in Manhattan.
The state of internal carbon pricing
Source: McKinsey
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