The Daily Ten – $10 Trillion Millennials, Bitcoin Bars, Amazon of home sales…
The Daily Ten
1. Young American Adults Top $10 Trillion in Assets for First Time | Bloomberg
Despite the pandemic-induced recession of 2020, America’s young adults doubled their assets over the past four years, new data from the Federal Reserve show.
This marks the first time the assets for so-called millennials have exceeded $10 trillion. But, this generation, the oldest of whom turn 40 this year, has a massive debt burden as well, according to the report which tracks American wealth through the third quarter of 2020.
“Younger generations have been hit particularly hard while older folk have reaped the benefits,” Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid and Luke Templeman wrote in the report, “To Save Capitalism, We Must Help the Young.”
They note that older adults who own hard assets such a real estate might be “at an unfair advantage” compared with younger people who could continue to struggle to make similar purchases.
2. The Tiny Satellites That Will Connect Cows, Cars and Shipping Containers to the Internet | WSJ
In the shadow of giants like SpaceX, more than a dozen startups are building their own globe-spanning networks of nanosatellites, enabling a new kind of everywhere, all-the-time connectivity for people, animals and assets on Earth
Scientists who track the health of Adélie penguins on the ice-covered wastes of Antarctica are managing their cameras from thousands of miles away—via tiny satellites orbiting above our heads.
Energy companies are exploring using the same technology for monitoring hard-to-reach wind farms; logistics companies for tracking shipping containers; and agribusiness companies for minding cattle. It even helped National Geographic track a discarded plastic bottle from Bangladesh to the Indian Ocean.
In the near future, it isn’t unreasonable to imagine this evolving satellite technology could put a distress beacon in every automobile, allow remote monitoring of wildlife in any environment on earth, and track your Amazon shipment—not just when it’s on a truck, but backward, all the way to the factory that produced it. And it could be done at a fraction of the cost of earlier satellite tracking systems.
3. Two NYC bars could make US history by selling for Bitcoin | CNBC
A Big Apple bar owner is bowing out — and banking on Bitcoin with what could be the first cryptocurrency-only restaurant sale in the US.
This week, Patrick Hughes put his side-by-side Hell’s Kitchen watering holes, Hellcat Annie’s and Scruffy Duffy’s, up for sale. The price tag: 25 Bitcoins or 800 Ethereum tokens for both, a value of about $875,000 by current cryptocurrency prices.
“Crypto is on fire, it’s a hot currency,” said Hughes, 56, a Queens native who now resides in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ, and whose family has been in the Manhattan bar business since 1970. “It’s decentralized. It’s global.”
Fueled by ever-increasing debt and fears of a devalued American dollar, Hughes is among countless investors, institutions and everyday Americans who see cryptocurrency as a legit alternative to the dollar.
4. ‘It Was a Joke’: Some Small Businesses Got $1 Relief Loans | The New York Times
Sole proprietors were eligible for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program only if they were profitable, but many got tiny loans because of the way rules were written.
The Paycheck Protection Program was a lifeline for millions of small businesses brutalized by the pandemic. Over a four-month span, the government program distributed $523 billion in forgivable loans to more than five million companies. The average recipient got just over $100,000.
5. Improvement in Covid-related mortgage bailouts drops dramatically along with job losses | CNBC
More borrowers are getting current on their mortgages again, after falling behind on payments due to the economic hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The improvement, however, is slowing dramatically, which could hit the mortgage market harder in the coming months than previously expected.
As of Jan. 5, just over 5% of all mortgages, or 2.74 million, are still in government or private sector Covid-related mortgage bailouts, according to Black Knight, a mortgage technology and data firm. These plans allow borrowers to delay their monthly payments for up to a year. The payments are then either made up at the end of the loan or when the home is sold.
The past week’s tally of borrowers in forbearance marks a decline of 92,000, or 3%, from the previous week. That is the largest drop in over a month, but only because a large volume of plans expired at the end of December. The mortgage bailout is offered in 3-month increments. Borrowers have to reapply every three months.
6. Airbnb’s Section 230 Use Underscores Law’s Reach Beyond Facebook | WSJ
Home-rental site is caught up in political push to change internet shield even as its efforts to use law haven’t always worked
As lawmakers and tech executives prepare for a major battle over an internet liability shield this year, a look at Airbnb Inc.’s ABNB -0.99% use of the law shows that the stakes go well beyond social-media giants such as Facebook Inc. FB -0.44% and Twitter Inc. TWTR -1.62%
The home-rental site isn’t usually mentioned in the heated discourse over Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the 25-year-old legislation that has shielded internet companies from liability for what users post on their platforms.
But Airbnb has repeatedly sought protection under the law to avoid responsibility for listings on its site that several cities say violate local home-renting rules. It is actively lobbying in the political effort to reshape the law, even as the record shows that the company’s efforts to use it as a shield haven’t always been successful.
7. Nearly 4 million Americans have been out of work for at least six months | CNN Business
New York (CNN Business)Jennifer Davis lost her job as director of catering and special events at a small restaurant chain within 15 minutes of Maryland shuttering bars and eateries in mid-March.
Nearly 10 months later, Davis is still looking for work. A 20-plus-year veteran of the restaurant industry, she’s applied “nonstop” to a wide range of positions, including in management, operations and as an executive assistant, with little to no response.
To give herself some more options, she’s now studying to become a real estate agent and is taking online classes toward a bachelor’s degree in marketing at the University of Maryland.
“I’m trying to just find whatever I can to get through,” said Davis, 36, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland. “The reality is that the restaurant industry, catering and events, they’re not going to be the same for a couple of years.”
8. Crypto Markets Drop $60 Billion As Investors Fear Correction Is Coming | Decrypt
Billions were wiped from Bitcoin and the broader crypto market cap as fears of a bear market begin to grip traders.
It was a bad weekend for cryptocurrencies. After Bitcoin hit $40,000 and global market cap soared past the $1 trillion mark the weekend put a dampener on things.
Total market cap is now hovering below $940 billion, losing 17% in the past 24 hours alone, according to data company Nomics. That’s a $60 billion loss. Eesh.
Accounting for most of those losses was Bitcoin, which has pulled back 20% in the past 24 hours and shows little sign of stopping its drop. But the world’s biggest cryptocurrency wasn’t the worst affected.
9. The scramble is back on to become Amazon of home sales | The Philadelphia Inquirer
IBuyers, who make instant offers, spare sellers from prepping their houses and enduring showings. But the pandemic and low inventory have slowed the growth of this new sales option.
When Opendoor, Zillow Offers and other “iBuyers” popped up a few years ago, they hoped to upend the traditional home buying by doing for real estate what Amazon has done for online shopping: use technology to eliminate the hassles and uncertainties of buying and selling. That included offering sellers “instant” online offers on properties the companies would later resell.
But last spring, with the pandemic bearing down on the economy and the future of the real estate market uncertain, iBuyers stopped buying, interrupting efforts to disrupt an industry that has long relied on face-to-face interactions. Now they’re back, but there’s a shortage of house listings, and properties are selling in record time. Some analysts are saying the promise of an instant offer isn’t enough.
“Overall, iBuyers are struggling in this high-demand, low-inventory market,” said Mike DelPrete, a global real estate tech strategist. “The consumer proposition of an instant offer is less relevant and appealing now than it’s been in the past.”
10. Use of Clearview AI facial recognition tech spiked as law enforcement seeks to identify Capitol mob | The Verge
The company’s CEO said use of its tech was up 26 percent the day after the January 6th attack
Clearview AI’s CEO says that use of his company’s facial recognition technology among law enforcement spiked 26 percent the day after a mob of pro-Trump rioters attacked the US Capitol. First reported by the New York Times, Hoan Ton-That confirmed to The Verge that Clearview saw a sharp increase in use on January 7th, compared to its usual weekday search volume.
The January 6th attack was broadcast live on cable news, and captured in hundreds of images and live streams that showed the faces of rioters breaching the Capitol building. The FBI and other agencies have asked for the public’s help to identify participants. According to the Times, the Miami Police Department is using Clearview to identify some of the rioters, sending possible matches to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. And The Wall Street Journal reported that an Alabama police department was also using Clearview to identify faces in images from the riot and sending information to the FBI.