What I’m Reading
Failure to Launch: Yesterday, the Supreme Court overturned the eviction ban in a 6-3 vote, as expected. New York Times
The real story here should be how poor of a job we have been doing with rent relief. Only $4.7 billion of almost $47 billion appropriated by Congress for rent relief has reached tenants and landlords through July. IMO, the primary issue is that the program is a complicated mess. While overseen by the Treasury, it relies on a patchwork of more than 450 state, county and municipal governments and charitable organizations to distribute aid. That is a recipe for disaster and desperately needs to be streamlined. Wall Street Journal
Out of Options: Banks are flooded in deposits and customers are taking out fewer loans. As a result, banks have largely been left to invest in one of the least lucrative assets around: government debt. Despite near-record low yields, banks are buying Treasury bonds at an unprecedented volume. New York Times
Going it Alone: Shipping chaos is pushing the world’s largest retailers to charter their own cargo ships in an attempt to gain better control of their supply chains. Axios
Setting Sail: After topping out in the 1990s, watercraft purchases surged last year as Covid-19 sent more people outdoors for recreation. As some of those lifestyle changes persist, new buyers could help keep sales rising.
All of these new boats (and RVs) will need to live somewhere which is why we remain extremely bullish on both dry and wet storage facilities. Bloomberg
Inertia: As the pandemic drags on, some employees are getting more attached to the flexibility of remote work. An August survey from PwC finds 41% of a group of remote workers want to stay fully remote. This is up from January when only 29% of people in this group said they didn’t want to return to the office. Insider
Chart of the Day
New homes priced under $200k are not long for this world.
Source: Calculated Risk Blog
WTF
Devil in the Details: An Australian news network accidentally broadcast a satanic ritual during a news segment. NY Post
Its Lit: A passenger on a flight lit up a cigarette and began smoking it because Florida. Also, because Spirit. Miami Herald
Basis Points – A candid look at the economy, real estate, and other things sometimes related.
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