Q: Couldn't this JIRA ticket just be an email?

A: No! Because JIRA will send you like, 10 emails.

Fair enough, it does happen. Relevant background: https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/investors-hold-most-empty-houses

The states with the highest vacancy rates in investor-owned properties were:

Indiana (7.2%); 
Illinois (6.1%); 
Oklahoma (5.9%); 
Alabama (5.9%); and 
Ohio (5.8%). 

States with the lowest vacancy rates were:

New Hampshire (0.9%); 
Vermont (1%); 
Idaho (1.2%); 
Utah (1.5%); and 
North Dakota (1.5%).

I'd argue my sentiment remains, investors for the most part rent out property, they don't typically hold it vacant. When they do it's more likely vacancies are transitory (trying to find a renter) than long term and intentionally kept vacant.

Why would PE buy them if not to rent & be subject to the same renter's bill of rights? Holding a vacant house isn't a good 😊 investment, they have upkeep costs, are subject to property taxes, and depreciate faster when unoccupied.

I used to keep up with distance running and ultimate frisbee, but after having kids didn't have time to stay competitive. I'll still run solo, or play an occasional pickup game, but not doing it regularly makes me a little depressed that my skill level and physical condition aren't what they once were. 😓

This economist isn't... Others are pointing out more relevant things like inflation, anemic job growth. Lower sentiment is well explained if you adjust your metrics a bit: https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/

I'm skeptical and (perpetually) short on time; but I'll queue it up and give it an initial opportunity to make a case.

My stance going in is that Russia's failed invasion and the US debacle in Iran make future aggression less likely (at least for the short term). I'd argue it's similar to how the US "war" in Vietnam diminished the US appetite for war ~50 wars ago.

War is costly to direct participants; only Israel seems to have a continued appetite for it among developed nations... Putin's once solid grip on power is now showing significant cracks, Trump & republicans currently look to lose some share of electoral power due to their policies (which involves more than just Iran, but that seems to be the single biggest polling impact).

I'll certainly acknowledge the tensions in the middle east could easily inflate to become a larger conflict. Hopefully the wiser people prevail over the "strongmen" who somehow keep getting elected.

This breaks down pretty quickly under scrutiny.

Germany steps up military, probably.

Russia claims it's 1941 again: not really... 1940s Germany was already invading, and it was more than Russia involved in that. There's currently amicable relations between them and the UK, France, Spain, Italy, etc...

Nobody is talking.

? There's so much cross nation communication. Plus there's official venues to address issues in the EU, UN, etc...

Nobody is trading.

Not reflected in the actual trade numbers... Except for the US where there are nonsense tariffs changing at the whim of an orange clown. Overall international trade is continuing fine and mostly recovered from the COVID dip: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade?time=2000..latest

For those less familiar with Economic terminology: Stagflation

The access charge would probably be less than the current cost.

Or a better way to phrase it: more oil tankers would traverse the strait if the price was known and stable, compared to the risk of attack and unknown outcome they currently face.

Already baked in to market prices... It will be a serious negative shock not to increase them at the next Fed meeting.

Doing a good job governing and making people better off then campaigning on that success is legal.

Boring news cycles, but legal.

Short answer is: yes there are voters to sway. Less previous party voters and more non-voters. Texas is among the lowest in voter turnout: https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_turnout_in_Texas

From 2002 to 2024, the average voter turnout rate of eligible voters in Texas was 45.0%. The national average voter turnout rate of eligible voters for this same period was 52.4%.