🍋 $100k No Longer Enough

Together With

Good Morning! The Bank of Japan just increased its interest rate from 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points, proving that even the doviest of banks can still be a little hawkish. TikTok is finally going to tell you why certain videos are on your for-you page, just don’t expect them to reveal the secret algorithm any time soon.

Delta plans on rolling out free Wi-Fi on flights next year. Sam Bankman-Fried signed his extradition papers and will be flying back to the United States today. And in a shocking turn of events, it turns out Wells Fargo may have actually done something wrong. The bank will pay a $3.7 billion fine over consumer banking violations.

Y’all sick of paying rent and never seeing anything in return? You can now earn points when paying rent with the Bilt Mastercard. Apply here.

1. Story of the Day: $100k No Longer Enough

It seems like these days, everyone is feeling the pinch of high inflation. We’re all turning into those grumbling boomers who complain about how cheap things used to be. But our minds just can’t keep up with high prices.

Two common financial metrics - a $100k salary and $1 million house - just ain’t what they used to be. According to a recent study, the average lowest wage that American workers would expect for a new job is $92,000. 

That’s the highest it’s been since they started tracking it back in 2014 when it was a measly $70,000. Meanwhile, the FHA is now backing mortgages over $1 million in some areas. It’s a stark reminder that the cost of living has skyrocketed, and our perception of what is considered a reasonable price for things has not kept up.

Takeaway: Behavioral economists say that our perception of prices is heavily influenced by what they were when we entered adulthood. For many young adults, this is the first period of high inflation they've experienced, and it's bound to create some new normals. In other words, get ready to grumble about the cost of things like your grandparents did.

2. Markets Rundown

If you want access to Wall Street insider interviews, industry deep-dives, premium research/resources and weekly Knowledge Drop newsletter, check out our Insiders membership.

Stocks closed slightly higher after the Bank of Japan modified its yield curve.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Moderna ($MRNA) +6% the stock rebounded after positive news on the company's cancer vaccine.

• (–) General Mills ($GIS) -5% after the food manufacturer sees higher production costs.

• (–) Tesla ($TSLA) -8% after a downgrade to $100 by Evercore, frustrated investors on the Tesla shares retreat.

Private Dealmaking

• Binance.US acquired assets of bankrupt lender Voyager Digital for $1 billion

• MasterControl, a developer of software for life sciences companies, raised $150 million

• Aztec Network, a developer of a web3 privacy layer for Ethereum transactions, raised $100 million

• Beamery, an ‘all-in-one’ talent management platform, raised $50 million DataVisor, a software provider that detects fraud, raised $40 million

• Tandem Diabetes Care bought AMF Medical, a Swiss insulin patch pump developer, for $216 million

A Message from Bilt: Start Earning Points on Rent

Y’all sick of paying rent and never seeing anything in return?

You can now earn points when paying rent at any home, whether you pay with a check, an online portal, or by ACH, you can use the Bilt Mastercard. 

You can use your points to book travel with 100+ airlines and hotels, redeem them as credit towards your next rent payment, or even save them towards a down payment on a home. The best part: there is $0 annual fee for the Bilt MasterCard*. 

• 1X Points on rent payments (no transaction fee)†

• 2X Points on travel†

• 3X Points on dining†

Earn points when you make 5 transactions each statement period†.

Apply today and if approved start getting rewarded for paying rent.

Credit card is subject to credit qualification.†Key Rewards Terms *Key Card Terms

Top Reads

• Private equity’s tough year shows no signs of letting up (BB)

• Slow fade for Google and Meta’s ad dominance (Axios)

• Notable M&A moves in 2022 (Fox)

• Housing had a terrible 2022, and one report tells the whole story (YF)

• How the Airbnb gold rush is hurting small town America (Wired)

• No one wants the job - Elon Musk’s Twitter management problem (Axios)

• The five emails you need to send before New Year’s to boost your career (WSJ)

• The psychological traps of online shopping and how to avoid them (Vox)

• Musk tries to explain why Tesla shares are tanking (CNBC)

4. Book of the Day: The Value of Everything

In this scathing indictment of our current global financial system, The Value of Everything rigorously scrutinizes the way in which economic value has been determined and reveals how the difference between value creation and value extraction has become increasingly blurry. 

Mariana Mazzucato argues that this blurriness allowed certain actors in the economy to portray themselves as value creators, while in reality they were just moving existing value around or, even worse, destroying it.

The book uses case studies - from Silicon Valley to the financial sector to big pharma - to show how the foggy notions of value create confusion between rents and profits, a difference that distorts the measurements of growth and GDP.

“His metaphor of the ‘invisible hand’ has been cited ad nauseam to support the current orthodoxy that markets, left to themselves, may lead to a socially optimal outcome–indeed, more beneficial than if the state intervenes.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

• 3 morning habits to help you become happier and more productive at work

• Life-changing principles for success

• 10 psychology tricks that feel like cheat codes to life

• Is it better to be a generalist or specialist in your career? 

• The 10-book rule for smarter thinking

A Message from DONUT: How’s your news diet?

🤦 Do you blissfully have your head in the sand with current events? Hey, we get it. Mainstream news is repetitive, biased, and frankly just unpleasant. 

But if you’re ready for a breath of fresh air – or better yet, a sweet dose of nonpartisan, trustworthy news – check out The DONUT!

• Every morning, 85,000+ daily readers are actually enjoying the news thanks to fast, witty updates that let them make up their own minds – no clickbait or sensationalism allowed. And it's FREE.

The DONUT weeds through all the negativity and bias to cover only the most relevant/interesting stories. Why? To save you time while ensuring you’re the most interesting person in the room.🍩😎

Start enjoying the news again for FREE with The DONUT.

6. Daily Visual: Where to Find Holiday Deflation

Consumer Price Index, Sept to Nov '22

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen

“Seeing the world through the eyes of others:

Most organizations create an ineffective system of rules and policies that attempt to prepare for every possible contingency.

The thing about rules and policies is they become very hard to fix once they are put in place. Both the people who put them in place and those whose job it is to exercise them become highly motivated advocates of the policies.

Even if the policies originally made sense, they become very hard to change as the environment changes. When you try to change something but can’t, you start becoming a tenant and stop being an owner. And ownership dramatically increases the odds of success.”

Source: Farnam Street

8. Memes of the Day

 Advertise With Us / Merch Store / Private Equity Course

*****

Want more Short Squeez?

Become an Insider. You'll get access to:

1. Industry deep-dives & compelling investment ideas

2. Wall Street Insider interviews breaking down their investment portfolio, strategy & investment picks

3. Knowledge Drop - an exclusive alpha-generating newsletter covering the best weekly research & content (podcasts, articles, blogs)

4. Vault – a collection of investing & recruiting guides, modeling courses, salary / comp data, institutional research (40+ resources added / month)

See you on the Inside.

*****