Soaring rents have been mainly a Big City problem. Now, they are an everywhere problem, writes Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck.

• Why it matters: Skyrocketing rents, with housing prices at historic highs, make it hard for people to afford to live.

Rent listings in the second quarter were 23% higher nationwide compared to the same period in 2019, according to census data.

• These "asking rents" are the price landlords charge new tenants, as opposed to renewal rents — the price you pay when you renegotiate your lease. Those are going up as well, but not as much.

🔭 Zoom out: Soaring rents contribute to inflation — causing the Fed to raise rates and put the brakes on the economy. That puts the country closer to the possibility of a recession.

The terrible catch: A recession wouldn't bring much relief for renters. When the economy slows down, rents don't fall (Take a look at that chart!) — but people do lose their jobs.

• One reason rent prices are a bit recession-proof is people are less likely to buy homes when the economy isn't doing well.

What's happening: Landlords are passing on their rising costs to renters.

• Landlords are also capitalizing on the strong demand for housing, especially in places where folks migrated because of remote work. Plus, people wanted more space, and some traded up for more square footage.

🎧 Go deeper: Listen to an "Axios Today" episode featuring listeners' rent tales ... Share this story.

Disgraced WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann has scored a gargantuan venture-capital investment in Flow, his new quest to disrupt the residential rental market.

• Why it matters: Silicon Valley's love affair with free-wheeling, big-spending startup founders remains hot — even in a down market, Axios managing editor Scott Rosenberg writes from the Bay Area.

Andreessen Horowitz announced yesterday it will fund Flow — which aims to reinvent residential rentals as WeWork set out to do for office space — to the tune of $350 million.

• Neumann fell from grace in 2019 and took WeWork's IPO with him.
• Within a couple of years, you could watch the whole emblematic saga — in lightly fictionalized, binge-worthy form on Apple TV+ ("WeCrashed"), or in a Hulu documentary.

Between the lines: Whatever it was that made Neumann unfit to lead the trendy co-working giant, it didn't cause anyone at Andreessen Horowitz to flinch. The venture-capital firm described its investment in Flow as the largest single check it has ever paid into an investment round, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin's scoop in the N.Y. Times (subscription).

• Neumann has purchased 3,000+ apartment units in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta and Nashville, The Times reported.

💡 The bottom line: Neumann's comeback shows that the people who direct tech capital still believe the industry's most precious resources are entrepreneurial experience and epic-scale chutzpah.

• "[O]nly projects with such lofty goals have a chance at changing the world," Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen wrote.

Keep reading.

China is slowing fast, and the government is taking only modest steps to try to keep the earth's second-largest economy from outright contraction, Axios Markets co-author Matt Phillips writes.

• Why it matters: While it lags the U.S. in size, China's economy has been the largest source of growth for global GDP for much of the last two-plus decades. So it's a global engine of corporate profitability, commodities demand and investment activity.

A raft of disappointing economic updates this week showed Chinese growth still sputtering on multiple fronts.

• Its industrial sector slowed again.
• The crisis in China's housing sector continues.
• Consumers aren't picking up the slack. Retail sales in July were up a scant 2.7% year-over-year — far short of the 5% expectation.

Go deeper: "China Surprise Data Could Spell R-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n" (Bloomberg).

With searing heat this summer and more on the way, here's where the thermometer could outrun the infrastructure. (Via Axios Generate)

President Biden has three leaders, including two in the White House, to turn to during a cyberattack. Until last year, two out of the three positions didn't exist, Sam Sabin writes in today's relaunch of Axios Codebook.

• Why it matters: Industry execs and former officials who talk regularly with the trio are still trying to distinguish who does what. But an onslaught of high-profile cyberattacks, including Russian threats tied to the war in Ukraine, has left no room for turf wars.

The Biden administration has earned praise from experts for stabilizing and strengthening an executive-branch cybersecurity operation that had grown wobbly in the Trump era.

Biden's "big three" are national cyber director Chris Inglis, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber at the White House's National Security Council.

• Neuberger handles the White House's cyber policy agenda.
• Inglis develops strategies to strengthen the larger U.S. cyber ecosystem, including the private and public sectors.
• Easterly concentrates on defending the federal government and private sector from attacks.

💻 Click here to get Axios Codebook, our twice-weekly cybersecurity newsletter, relaunching today ... Share this story.

Stellantis, maker of Dodge, says its gas-hog Challenger and Charger muscle cars will go out of production at the end of next year.

• To try to make it a profitable farewell, Dodge will offer seven premium-priced "heritage-influenced" versions, being introduced under cover at certain dealerships, Reuters reports.

What's happening: With their retro styling and six and eight-cylinder engines, the Challenger and Charger are throwbacks to Detroit muscle cars of the '60s and '70s.

• Like their forebears, the current Dodge muscle cars are getting run off the road by regulations aimed at curbing pollution.

Alex Wagner's new four-day, Tuesday-Friday prime-time perch on MSNBC is unorthodox.

• But she plans to make the slot her own by adding out-of-studio reporting and non-political, cultural topics to Rachel Maddow's popular mix, AP's David Bauder writes.

Tonight, Wagner takes over MSNBC's 9 p.m. ET showcase.

• Maddow will still host Monday nights. The rest of the week will be "Alex Wagner Tonight."

Why it matters: It's part of Maddow's new deal with NBC News that keeps her with the network to produce podcasts, books and more, while stepping away from the daily grind of a show that began in 2008.

For now, Wagner, 44, is working with much of Maddow's staff. Wagner says she takes inspiration from Maddow's investigative rigor. But don't expect lengthy, complex opening monologues.

• "Rachel is incomparable, and woe to anybody who tries to duplicate what she does," Wagner said. "I would never try."

🕶️ What we're watching: Maddow reached an average of 2.4 million viewers on Mondays in July. For the other four weeknights, MSNBC averaged 1.4 million in that hour.

• Editor's note: This version corrects days for "Alex Wagner Tonight."

I'm just back from a few days in Wisconsin's Northwoods.

• I stayed in Three Lakes, which is said to be part of the world's largest inland freshwater chain of lakes.

Here's to your final summer fling ...