Why Jobs in Retail Are at 2007 Levels: It’s Structural. Jobs in Ecommerce & Services Boomed but Aren’t in “Retail Trade.” And Half of Retail Trade is Moribund by Wolf Richter • Jun 5, 2023 • 84 Comments Walmart U.S. gave us some color: ecommerce sales +27%; grocery sales +12%; non-grocery brick-and-mortar sales -10%.
What Are Manhattan’s Older Office Towers Worth? First Benchmark Prices in the New Era by Wolf Richter • May 30, 2023 • 76 Comments Whoever buys the defaulted loan gets the tower. So far, investors and specialized lenders have been on the hook, not commercial banks.
Free-Money Party for Corporate Profits Turns into Hangover amid Rising Costs and Pressured Revenues by Wolf Richter • May 25, 2023 • 115 Comments “We are entering an EBITDA recession”: S&P Global Ratings.
Delinquencies in Subprime Auto-Loan-Backed Securities Have Second-Worst April Ever, Behind only Lockdown April: The Cost of Free Money by Wolf Richter • May 24, 2023 • 61 Comments In the free-money era, subprime auto lenders took huge risks amid seething demand from yield-chasing investors.
Meta Fined “Unprecedented” $1.3 billion by EU = 17 Days of Pre-Tax Income, LOL by Wolf Richter • May 22, 2023 • 65 Comments LOLs keep piling up. Cost of doing business. Nevertheless, Meta came out swinging against it.
Here’s the Great Deal JP Morgan Got on First Republic, according to JP Morgan’s Victory Lap in front of Investors by Wolf Richter • May 1, 2023 • 183 Comments A one-time “bargain purchase gain” of $2.6 billion, “over $500 million” in net income accretion, lots of other goodies amounting to an IRR of “over 20%.”
First Republic Zombie Bank Dismembered, Pieces Handed to JP Morgan, Uninsured Depositors Bailed Out. Stockholders, some Bondholders Bailed in. Cost to FDIC Fund: $13 Billion by Wolf Richter • May 1, 2023 • 135 Comments FDIC Board Member McKernan laments “our country’s bailout culture that privatizes gains while socializing losses.”
Remember the Lithium Shortage & Huge Price Spike? In the Four Months since, Lithium Collapsed 70% amid Talk of Lithium Glut by Wolf Richter • Apr 29, 2023 • 152 Comments Fits with Tesla’s big price cuts, aimed at internal-combustion-engine vehicles.
What Are We Going to Do with All these Unicorns? by Wolf Richter • Apr 26, 2023 • 91 Comments Another Easy-Money hangover.
First Republic Discloses it’s a Zombie by Wolf Richter • Apr 24, 2023 • 126 Comments Shares, after jumping 12% during the day in anticipation of something wonderful, plunged 22% after-hours, now within a hair of the low in March.
