Axios

Nearly 16% of U.S. millennials lived with their parents in 2022, per the latest census figures.

Why it matters: Younger people are increasingly struggling to swing high housing costs and returning to their childhood bedrooms or basements.

Half of all renters in the U.S. were burdened by the cost of their rent in 2022, a report released by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies this week found.

Why it matters: The increasing lack of affordable housing over the past few years has plagued millions of people across the country, just as homelessness reached an all-time high last year.

Here's a conundrum that got me very puzzled after I was introduced to it by Elizabeth Renter of NerdWallet: Why are single parents so much richer than single non-parents?

Why it matters: It's generally understood that the more money you make, the more money you'll have. But that doesn't seem to be the case when you look at the Fed's triennial survey of consumer finances.

On U.S. social media, false and harmful posts from connections shilling the dubious products of multi-level marketing (MLM) companies have become inescapable.

Why it matters: Trust in media is descending to unprecedented depths — and social media increasingly is media. News is not a distinct category any more, so much as it's a single ingredient in a wide-ranging and often highly toxic stew of highly disparate posts.

Israel's longstanding cultivation of its global diaspora as a source of funds paid off last quarter, as Jews around the world kept on lending the country money at much lower rates than the commercial markets.

Why it matters: Both Israel and many of its investors are sophisticated players of the arbitrage between debts issued to different types of bondholders. (Traders need not apply: The diaspora bonds are non-tradable.)

When a government is worried that its stock market has fallen too far, sometimes it tries to buy stocks in an attempt to turn the market around. China is looking to unleash about $278 billion to that effect shortly.

Why it matters: Economists generally hate this move, saying it introduces inefficiencies to markets. But policymakers are generally more open to it.

Brainstorming sessions might be a bad idea.

Why it matters: Idea generation and discussion are essential elements of the workplace — whether remote or in person.

Intel is feeling blue after investors reacted to the company's earnings outlook, Nathan writes.

Driving the news: The tech giant's stock closed down nearly 12% today after releasing earnings yesterday afternoon.

• Intel beat expectations on earnings and profit, but investors fixated on the company's first-quarter projection of $12.2 billion to $13.2 billion in revenue and a loss of 25 cents per share.

State of play: "While some parts of the semiconductor industry are booming because of strong demand for artificial intelligence chips, other server parts, such as the central processing units, or CPUs, that Intel makes, don't have the same kind of momentum," CNBC reported.

Developers are aiming high — really high — in Oklahoma City, with ambitions of constructing the tallest building in the U.S., Nathan writes.

Driving the news: Matteson Capital and architect AO recently revealed a proposal to build a 1,907-foot-tall skyscraper as the centerpiece of a 5 million-square-foot development in Oklahoma City.

• The structure's height — which would make it taller than the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center in New York — pays homage to the year Oklahoma became a state.

Yes, but: The developers will need height variance approval from the city for the Legends Tower, which was previously targeted at 1,750 feet.

Bitcoin's fall following this month's ETF launches has much of the crypto community wondering what happened to "buy the rumor, buy the news"?!

Why it matters: These cries of disappointment show a blindspot in the industry's understanding of how Wall Street picks up new things.

Nearly all the indicators released in recent weeks tell the same story: evaporating inflation alongside still-humming economic activity.

Why it matters: It's a turnaround from earlier in the inflation fight, when strong data may have spooked financial markets and policymakers. Now it's a sign that inflation can be beaten without a painful downturn.

All the juice in the housing market in 2023 was in new home sales — and that's likely to continue this year.

Driving the news: New home sales rose 4.4% in December 2023, compared to the previous year, per census data out Thursday.

A decadelong lending boom for apartment buildings doesn't look quite as smart as it used to.

Why it matters: It's another headache for smaller lenders that just limped through an ugly 2023. Regional banks lost deposits to larger rivals after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank prompted many to move money to the apparent safety of the "too big to fail" banks.

It's official: We got the soft landing in 2023.

Why it matters: Nearly every economist on and off Wall Street was all but certain that the U.S. would face a sharp slowdown in economic growth last year.