What I'm Reading Whack a Mole: Americans moved around a lot over the past two years, and those destinations also now happen to have the highest inflation rates in the U.S per new research from Redfin. Conversely, places like San Francisco that people left tend to have lower inflation. Redfin...
April 27th – Hitting the Wall
What I'm Reading Hitting the Wall: Trucking demand is “near freight recession levels,” according to Bank of America. Shippers’ outlook on rates, capacity and inventory levels are matching attitudes not seen since May and June 2020, when pandemic lockdowns sent freight volumes into a historic decline. Freight Waves Halted: Ships...
March 22nd – Upward Spiral
What I'm Reading Upward Spiral: Employment is strong and rents are rising quickly. People want to buy homes, in part to protect themselves against rising rents. The obvious answer is to build more homes. However, this is easier said than done thanks in part to a shortage of raw materials...
December 15th – Delay Tactics
What I'm Reading Delay Tactics: Planning departments in California cities are going to great effort to try to comply with California's new housing mandates. Unions and environmental groups are using CEQA to stifle those efforts. Two stalled projects in my hometown of Newport Beach illustrate the problem. OC Register Latest...
December 6th – Pancaked
What I'm Reading Pancaked: The yield curve has been flattening quickly with short rates rising and long rates falling. This could leave the Fed in a bind as the yield curve trajectory suggests that it could be inverted before a hiking cycle ever begins. All Star Charts Interesting to note...
November 30th – Pass Through
What I'm Reading Limited Competition: Buying real estate off market is much more about avoiding protracted bidding wars and minimizing pursuit costs than it is about buying properties at a deep discount. Globe Street Log Jam: Homebuilders are struggling with labor and material shortages. As a result, construction timelines have...
November 23rd – Cash Cows
Quick programming note: Basis Points will be off the rest of this week. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! What I'm Reading Cash Cows: An unprecedented supply chain crisis has resulted in public container shipping companies hitting all time highs for net revenue. To put this in perspective, the $48.1 billion in 3Q21...
November 4th – Sitting Ducks
What I'm Reading Sitting Ducks: Idle cargo containers piling up in ports and storage yards have created a target-rich environment for thieves, resulting in yet another supply chain headache. Cargo theft has increased 42% YoY in California during the 3rd quarter. CargoNet Out of Their Hands: The inflationary episode of...
October 29th – Clutter Patrol
What I'm Reading Misplaced Blame: The Biden administration has pushed the Ports of LA and Long Beach to begin fining carriers who don't move their containers from the port complexes quickly enough. By this logic, the problems are apparently not a massive backlog and capacity constraints but rather that the...
October 4th – No Takers
What I'm Reading No Takers: Spurred on by the Biden Administration, the Port of Long Beach began offering a pilot program offering 24-hour container operations over two weeks ago. To date, not a single trucker has taken advantage of it. The reason? Burdensome requirements (of course). Wall Street Journal On...