Hey All,
Welcome to Talk Money Weekly - where I cut through the noise and curate the best money-related topics from the web.
This week totally threw me off! I thought yesterday was Tuesday! Apologies for being a day late.
On to the newsletter!
Markets & Business
Talk Money Weekly: Inflation Sucks!
The new episode of Talk Money Weekly is now live! In this episode, I do a quick rundown on how inflation is affecting the economy and individuals directly. Because of government spending, more money is being printed and as a result, the buying power of the dollar goes down. As a result of that, costs go up.
Lumber, food, travel, you name it. It all goes up due to inflation. Listen to this 7 min "take" to learn more.
AMC Create Rewards Program for Retail Investors
AMC is the new and improved meme stock, embracing everything about its fanbase. AMC is my favorite movie theater chain, although I settle for Regal in NYC because the locations are better. Last year the movie theater industry got smashed and almost died. Now, there's a resurgence. We just went to the theater to watch a Quiet Place 2 (WATCH IT), and while it was busy, we're still in early days of movie recovery.
Retail investors are all over this stock, taking it to the moon. It's another heavily shorted stock and retail is really sticking it to the man once again. With 80% of the company shares being held by retail investors, AMC acknowledged this and is offering perks directly to shareholders. Very interesting strategy and one that other companies may follow on.
Would I invest? Absolutely not. This is speculation and I don't want to be the last one holding the short end of the straw. Is that the saying? I have no idea. Up 200% in 3 days and then down 20% in one day. I don't want to play that game. People are going to get hurt, and some will also get rich. It's a gamble, so treat it like one. We have entered into a whole new world of investing, and I'm all for it....with caution.
Lumber Prices Have Gone Ape Shit
I hear about it all the time. LUMBER PRICES KEEP GOING UP! I just saw a friend of mine post about it on his Instagram. So why is the cost of lumber going up? It's a combination of factors.
Supply- COVID caused many folks to push back supply thinking sales would slow. In general everything has slowed down due to COVID. So now that there's increased demand for new homes, lumber is limited, so prices go up.
Inflation- the cost of the good rise because the buying power of the dollar has gone down. So throw in a 5% increase (ballpark number) on the cost of lumber and that could also be affecting the price.
Demand- Real estate has exploded. Due to COVID, people are moving and wanting bigger homes. Part of this includes moving to areas outside the city, where it's easier to build new homes. Homes are built with lumber, so because of increased demand and limited supply, prices have shot up. So if you're building a home, is it best to wait for the price to correct? If time is on your side, I think that's not a terrible decision.
Remember Concorde? Now There’s Boom Supersonic
My Dad used to fly on Concordes when I was a kid in the 90's. It just sounded like the coolest thing. Go on a business trip and travel across the world in a matter of hours. Concordes were discontinued because the economics couldn't work. It was expensive to buy tickets and expensive to run. It wasn't comfortable AND a crash didn't help its story. The demand wasn't there.
Decades later, we now have Boom Supersonic. From what I understand, it's comfortable/luxurious, efficient with cost from the passenger side and the company side, and is fuel efficient. Technology solves all problems. With an order of 50 new aircrafts from United (15 are prepaid), we may be entering into a new age of aviation. They have a lot to prove before the additional 35 aircrafts are bought. United is a major airline though. (I hate them)
Of course, the same problems may exist as before, but let's hope the timing is right. I would LOVE to fly on one of these.
South Park Talked About the Creator Economy Long Before Everyone Else
Please watch this video. Long before we had monetization and subscription revenue for creators, we had the days where internet fame was worth nothing. This South Park clip from a decade ago shares the frustration viral internet stars had with not getting paid for the millions upon millions of views they racked up. This sums it up well.
That's all the news from this past week! If I was to make this newsletter into a Youtube show, would you watch it?
If you haven't already subscribed to my podcast, Talk Money, do so here. New episode next Wednesday!
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