Seven weeks into the second Trump administration, one thing has become clear: It's better to be a trader than an investor.

Why it matters: Trump is by far the most unpredictable president in living memory, which means he's by far the most likely to do something unexpected that moves markets.

Driving the news: When Trump was asked about recession risks over the weekend, he said, "I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition," adding, "It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us, I mean I think it should be great."

• The stock market, which was looking for reassurance that Trump is trying to avoid a recession, promptly barfed, with Trump-adjacent stocks like Tesla taking the biggest hits.
• "Markets do not like uncertainty and the administration is creating a lot of confusion. This is a Trumpster fire," Franklin Templeton Institute strategist Chris Galipeau said in market commentary.
• The upshot: Anybody who's been on the short side of the "Trump trade" since the inauguration has made spectacular profits.

Flashback: On March 2, Trump announced the impending creation of a "crypto strategic reserve" that would include Cardano, a coin with a market capitalization of about $24 billion. (The market value of bitcoin, by contrast, is some $1.6 trillion.)

• The price of Cardano immediately spiked by some 70%. It then slumped from $1.14 to $0.79 — a drop of more than 30% — in less than 24 hours, as the market realized Cardano was never going to be part of any strategic reserve. (Instead it was shunted into a "digital asset stockpile.")

Follow the money: The volatility in the crypto market was catnip for traders.

• The price action in bitcoin alone netted one trader with astonishingly good timing a profit of $6.8 million in a matter of hours.

What they're saying: Crypto high-flyer Anthony Pompliano, in a letter to investors, said Trump's move represented "a random smattering of speculative tools that will enrich the insiders and creators of these coins at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer," Reuters reported.

For the record: The White House declined to comment.

The bottom line: Trump regularly takes both sides of many issues. He has "a dizzying rhetorical tactic of shifting positions like quicksand," according a news analysis by the New York Times.

• As both the rug-pull president and the first crypto president, he's the perfect leader for an era of fast-twitch trading, rather than long-term investing.

Not only have home prices soared over the past decade, but it's the "affordable" homes that have seen the biggest price increases.

Why it matters: Rising prices, exacerbated by a shortage of affordable homes, put homeownership out of reach for many, driving them to a rental market that's also seen remarkable cost increases.

Zoom out: It's a doom loop. A shortage of affordable homes means that buyers compete fiercely for the cheapest ones, in turn pushing up prices.

• Prices for the bottom third of homes are up 124% since 2015, while the top third increased 77%, per an analysis by Moody's Analytics.

The big picture: The most desirable cities are becoming affordable only to the wealthy, while many of those of more modest means are forced into longer commutes, creating more traffic, more environmental strain, and greater social division, Mark Zandi, Moody's Analytics chief economist, wrote in the paper.

The latest: The paper endorses legislation set to be reintroduced this morning by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.

• The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2025 would provide more than $500 billion over the next decade to build more homes, funded by an increase in the estate tax.
• The money would be used to incentivize localities to cut regulations that impede building and would also go to first-time homebuyers.

Between the lines: Cutting regulation sounds great, but the zoning restrictions that impede building are typically fiercely defended by Republicans, including the president.

• But there is a surprising amount of bipartisan agreement that something needs to be done about housing affordability.
• Democratic banking committee staffers told Axios they're looking for some areas for compromise. They pointed to a part of Warren's bill that would restrict the ability of private equity firms to buy homes.

Reality check: Congress has little appetite for spending on folks in need these days, as lawmakers ponder slashing Medicaid in order to extend the 2017 tax cuts. Affordable housing funding appears to be stalled by the administration.

What to watch: There will be a Senate hearing on the topic tomorrow.

The still-low unemployment rate hides the bleak new reality for employees: rising fears of layoffs, uncertainty about the health of employers' business, and plummeting hope of finding other work.

Why it matters: High inflation crushed optimism in the Biden era. Now concern about the labor market and the economy is helping sink sentiment, a result of Trump's fast-moving policy, including federal cutbacks.

What's new: Employee confidence — as measured by workers' confidence in their employer's business outlook — fell to a record low in February, according to new data from workplace review platform Glassdoor.

• No sector saw a steeper drop than government and administration.
• Confidence among those workers declined nearly 5 percentage points last month, as the Department of Government Efficiency has "thrown the future of the federal workforce into disarray," Glassdoor said in a release.

What they're saying: "It's not just about people being laid off, but it's also about people who are left behind and feel the impact," Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, told Axios.

Flashback: This record low confidence, as tracked by Glassdoor, comes three years after the record high, a time when workers were in short supply and job hopping was easy.

• "Even if the hard economic data is not that different from the late 2010s, there might be this sense of loss relative to what could have been, maybe a sense of nostalgia for the labor market of years past," Zhao said.

Between the lines: The eroding confidence extends beyond DOGE anxiety.

• Employee confidence increased in fewer than half (10) of the 24 sectors tracked by Glassdoor in February, including health care, which has been responsible for a significant share of job gains in recent months.

What to watch: Key consumer sentiment indicators tell the same story of receding economic confidence. That has helped generate the "growth scare" that is top of mind for economists and investors.

• The New York Fed survey of consumer expectations showed respondents believe tougher economic conditions are ahead.
• The average respondent said there is nearly 40% chance the unemployment rate will be higher a year from now, an increase of more than 5 percentage points compared to January.
• The odds of missing a debt payment in the months ahead is the highest since April 2020.

The intrigue: Talk of layoffs across Glassdoor reviews is on the upswing. The share of reviews that mention "layoff" is up 5% from the same period a year ago.

• Callouts of inflation are down 13% from a year ago.

The bottom line: "As the balance of risks has shifted from inflation to the job market, we're seeing that reflected in how employees are talking about the the risks and challenges they face," Zhao said.