5 Economic Signals You Shouldn't Ignore

DID YOU KNOW?

• Over the last decade, more than a third of U.S. states have changed their rules to allow utilities to pay homeowners less for the energy they send to the grid. In some places, those changes have reduced savings for homeowners by hundreds or thousands of dollars each year, making solar a less appealing investment and dealing a blow to the industry. The changes all spin out from a simple fact: Solar generates most of its power in the middle of the day. Homeowners in some states can store extra unused energy in their battery to use in the home in the evening, saving money. That helps reduce emissions and demand on the grid; in some places, homeowners can even be paid to discharge their batteries.
• The 10-Year Treasury is approaching 4.7%, the highest in a year.
• Could a new wave of capital be entering the real estate markets? A bill being proposed this week would require annual withdrawals from accounts over $10 million for individuals of any age. The planned legislation stemmed in part from long-running concerns that some investors might circumvent annual contribution limits on retirement accounts by undervaluing shares in companies that aren’t public, “thus substantially increasing their tax benefits"....
• LUXE-DE-FLATION? Summer charters in the Med are down 20% to 30% from last year, yacht brokers say. A growing number of yachts are also offering special discounts for the rest of July and August. (CNBC)
• Approximately 94% of U.S. adults who do not have a job and are not looking for one explicitly report that they do not want a job. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), out of roughly 105 million Americans outside the labor force, about 98.5 million state they do not want a job, while only about 6.5 million state they actually want one. Naturally, this includes retirees (27%), the roughly 22% - 35% of non-working working-age adults with a personal chronic illness, injury, or physical disability, household caregivers, and those in schooling (about 23.5%).

It's attitude that matters, not resources. You create the world you want, not the world that's happening to you. You cannot design a building for 100 years and expect the use to remain the same.

— Vinod Khosla