Say hello to your last Sunday email of the year.

Thank you so much to everyone for signing up and reading every week.

We started this thing in February, and it’s been awesome getting to interact with you all on a weekly basis.

Here’s a little ‘State of the Newsletter’

1. We went from sending this to 5-6 close friends to about a 150 every week.

2. Our open rate is at 70%

3. We’ve met 10+ new people who have become dedicated readers requesting articles every week (all of them not in our professional network)

4. So many requests led us going to 2x weekly

Our goals for next year -

1. Subscribers at 1500+ (hey! tell your friends)

2. Keep an open rate of 50-60% (just because we’re trying to casually grow this thing doesn’t mean we’re trying to churn that affiliate/SEO wheel)

3. Stay humble - continue to cover all your requests (political finance machine, local/national health systems, etc.)

The sheer number of issue requests has been insane. We’ll be covering ALL the issues you requested through the new year.

We got a lot of hopeless notes after the Wednesday email about housing, and it was expected because we felt a little hopeless researching it.

So we decided to do a little breakdown of the economy to investigate some macro stuff into why exactly we can’t afford big things.

America: Still swole, comparatively

WELL, IT MUST BE THE ECONOMY RIGHT?

We think the confusing state of the economy is the result of the U.S. having too many PR people and not enough smart people.

Let’s take a look at some data:

1. America’s grown the most when when we compare GDP Growth of G7 Countries from Q4 2019 to Q1 2023

2. S&P 500 has absolutely crushed it this year.

3. Now, Jerome Powell just said that the Fed is willing to cut interest rates EVEN IF THERE’S NO RECESSION.

You know, we’ve written stuff signaling a recession might happen early next year with the caveat that no one knows what they’re talking about.

And we guessed it right. No one knows anything. Even us. Maybe that makes us the PR people instead of the smart people.

Yeah cool this doesn’t help me afford a house.

In a perfect world, it should.

GDP growth and good stock performance usually brings low employment and wage growth, which SHOULD help you buy a house.

But you’re right. These facts don’t serve as any consolation.

Here are some elephant-in-the-room factors as to why:

1. There’s a shortage of about 3.7m homes that’s accrued over the last decade. (15.6m households formed vs. 11.9 housing units built). During a supply shortage, we pay higher prices.
   

2. We’re also making less than our parents

3. While we’re making less than our parents, everything became more expensive.

It’s what happens when you’re birthed from the most selfish generation.

So America’s doing…great…but why aren’t younger Americans?

Clue: Hoarding at the top.

We copy+pasted the following text straight from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis website.

How much wealth inequality is there in the U.S.?

• The top 10% of households by wealth had $7.0 million on average. As a group, they held 69% of total household wealth.

• The bottom 50% of households by wealth had $51,000 on average. As a group, they held only 2.5% of total household wealth.

What is the current generational wealth gap?

• Younger Americans (millennials and Gen Zers) owned 70 cents for every $1 of wealth owned by Gen Xers at the same age.³

• Younger Americans (millennials and Gen Zers) owned 74 cents for every $1 of wealth owned by baby boomers at the same age.

So, a wealth gap at the top. Market dynamics always trump individual performance.

So next time your parents ask you why you’re still renting a 1-bedroom apartment with your spouse. Blame them.

The answer isn’t to be the bigger person.

The answer is to become the toxic generation, apparently.

Again, none of this is investment advice.

What AI made this week

Have a great week!

Ahmed and Peter