Good Morning! The Fed's favorite inflation gauge (PCE) dipped below 3% for the first time in almost three years. In the investment banking world, 'flat' bonuses are the new 'up' - bankers are just happy to get the same bonus check as last year. JPMorgan is rearranging leadership in a race to see who'll succeed Jamie Dimon. And JetBlue's casting some serious doubt on its deal with Spirit. Plus 6 tips to master the art of conversation, and why the best careers take a zigzag path.

In case you missed the Wall Street Firms Lunch Policies deck, you can find it here.

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_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

ATL Duping Wall Street Landlords

Atlanta’s real estate market has surged since the pandemic and has now become the largest market in the US for institutional investors. 

But the only match for firms like Blackstone, Starwood, and Cerberus? Squatters - an estimated 1,200 homes in the Atlanta area have become illegally occupied. They’re turning empty rental homes into their personal cribs - and they don’t pay rent. 

One private equity firm sent a crew to clean a house they owned - before they got met with a wild car chase ending in gunfire. And some landlords are so desperate, they’re trying to bribe squatters by paying them to leave.

Post-foreclosure crisis, Wall Street firms couldn’t get enough homes in Atlanta. But since the pandemic, Atlanta’s real estate market has surged thanks to folks moving from pricier cities. And there's a dark side to this growth – a severe lack of affordable housing and a rise in homelessness, making squatting more common than you’d think.

Squatters are getting savvy, thanks to the digital age. They're using self-showing apps and fake leases from the internet to play house. But not all squatters are con artists. Some are victims themselves, duped by scammers into renting non-existent homes. 

And for the legit Wall Street landlords? It's a race against time to fill vacancies before squatters move in. But evicting these unwelcome guests can be a slow, drawn-out process, thanks to backlogged courts and busy police officers.

Takeaway: Like any investment, Atlanta’s rental market isn’t just about buying properties - it's about managing the unexpected. Imagine Wall Street execs in their fancy suits, now playing a bizarre game of hide-and-seek with squatters. While some firms are saying they’re out of the Atlanta market for good - it’s still as hot a real estate market as ever for investors. Just make sure you don’t have any unwelcome visitors.

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_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Flat is the new ‘up’ for banker bonuses (WSJ)

• Tech layoffs jump in January despite record stock highs (CNBC)

• Fed's preferred inflation gauge falls below 3% (YF)

• These gyms survived the pandemic and are still sweating (WSJ)

• Chamath Palihapitiya is no longer raising a VC fund (Axios)

• MacKenzie Scott trims Amazon stake by $10 billion (Reuters)

• How Netflix won the streaming wars (Axios)

• JPMorgan shuffles top leaders in race to succeed Jamie Dimon (CNBC)

• Regional banks' next problem — apartment building loans (Axios)

• Tesla investors see no floor after losing $200B (YF)

• JetBlue casts doubt on Spirit deal completion (CNBC)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed lower but ended the week higher.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Booz Allen Hamilton ($BAH) +14% after the consulting company reported an earnings and revenue beat last quarter.

• (+) American Express ($AXP) +7% after the company issued full-year guidance that topped expectations.

• (–) Intel ($INTC) -12% because the company’s guidance fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

Private Dealmaking

• Bladder cancer biotech CG Oncology raises $380 million in IPO

• Siera, an enterprise AI company, raised $85 million

• Krutrim, an AI startup, raised $50 million

• Welligence, an energy data and intelligence firm, raised $41 million

• Clerk, a user authentication platform, raised $30 million

• Axiom, a smart contract infrastructure startup, raised $20 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

The Hunger Habit

Sometimes it feels as if there are as many ways to struggle with food as there are foods to eat. Craving, habit, emotions, boredom, stress, anxiety, or just the simple fact that a box of donuts seems to be omnipresent in the break room (free food!) can lead to feeling out of control around food.

While anxiety feels like something that happens to us, the pull of food seems like something we should be able to handle.

After all, we have to eat! But it’s not that simple. The result of this constant struggle—and then giving in or giving up—is a toxic cocktail of shame and self-judgment that makes it feel like it is impossible to change our behavior.

The Hunger Habit is based on Judson Brewer’s deeply researched plan proven to help us understand what is going on in our brains so that we can heal the guilt and frustration we experience around eating.

The key is to learn how to work with our brains rather than resisting our impulses, and to adopt an attitude of self-kindness rather than self-judgment.

“How we eat is more important than what we eat.”

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Fed Following Historical Pattern

It takes on average 8 months from the last Fed hike to the first Fed cut.

If the Fed cuts in March, it will be 8 months after the last Fed hike, which is exactly the average of all previous Fed hike cycles.

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_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Michael Jordan

Jay Z on Michael Jordan:

“I absolutely love Michael Jordan.

His career was a perfectly composed story about will.

I went to his restaurant at his invitation to have dinner with him.

It was an absolute dream conversation for me.

The thing that distinguished Jordan wasn't just his talent, but his discipline, his laser-like commitment to excellence.

That's something I always respect.

The gift that Jordan had wasn't just that he was willing to do the work, but he loved doing it.

He came into the game as Rookie of the Year and he finished off the last playoff game of his career with a shot that won the Bulls their sixth championship.

That’s the kind of consistency that you can get only by adding dead serious discipline to whatever talent you have.”

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• 6 conversation tips from people with high emotional intelligence 

• 31 time management tips for success this year

• Why Warren Buffett is such a big reader

• 5 crucial self-improvement habits

• Why the best careers zigzag

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day