🍋 Richcession is Here

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Good Morning! Remote work may have hit its peak last winter when over 20% of job listings offered the option. But now remote work may be past its prime as the job market lists few remote work openings month after month.

Quiet quitting may have been the trend of 2022. But economists say to watch out for quiet hiring in 2023 - many companies are either hiring contractors or slyly encouraging their current employees to take on new internal jobs and responsibilities.

A new report found elevators of the future may go horizontal and take you to your floor based on AI facial recognition. Airlines are making it more difficult to earn points this year. And PartyCity's party is over as it is preparing for bankruptcy.

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1. Story of the Day: Richcession is Here

As the economy starts to take a turn for the worse, it looks like the “richcession” is here to stay. It's like a recession, but instead of the middle class feeling the pinch, it's the wealthy elites who are feeling the squeeze on their designer wallets.

Economic downturns tend to disproportionately affect the less fortunate. But this slowdown has had a greater impact on well-off Americans for two key reasons. First and foremost, the vast majority of Americans are still down from the stock market’s 2021 highs. Household net worth for the top-fifth of Americans decreased by 7.1% during 2022, largely because of the stock market. At the same time, the bottom fifth of Americans saw a 17% increase in their household net worth.

A second key reason? The rich have also been hit hard by layoffs, with many tech companies announcing job cuts that disproportionately affect higher-income workers. On the bright side, these workers will likely have an easier time finding new work due to their transferable skills. However, they may not be paid as well as they were at their previous jobs. Meanwhile, industries that employ lower- and middle-income workers are still struggling to hire, potentially providing some financial stability for those individuals.

Takeaway: Looks like the tables have turned, and the rich are getting a little poorer while the poor are getting a little richer. Maybe some of the asset classes the wealthy hold (real estate/stocks) are coming down to earth, and economists still think we can make a soft landing.

2. Markets Rundown

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Stocks rallied on hopes inflation will ease.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Costco ($COST) +7% because the grocery chain added more memberships in December.

• (+) Apple ($AAPL) +4% as supply chain issues lessen.

• (–) Bed Bath & Beyond ($BBBY) -22% as the retailer nears bankruptcy.

Private Dealmaking

• ACI Worldwide, a payments software provider, in LBO talks at a $3 billion valuation

• Netskope, a cloud access security company, raised $401 million

• Masonite International bought Endura Products, a door frame manufacturer, for $375 million

• Zimmer Biomet bought Embody, a medical device company, for $275 million

• Apnimed, a pharmaceutical company focused on sleep disorders, raised $79.75 million

• SirionLabs, a contract lifestyle management startup, raised $25 million

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Top Reads

• Layoffs are tech’s new normal (Axios)

• Year of the bond starts with a $150 billion spree (BB)

• How health insurance made healthcare more expensive (CNBC)

• GE’s spinoff deserves healthy skepticism (WSJ)

• Wall Street’s sleuth of bears is growing (YF)

• Google might need to be un-Google-like (WSJ)

• 2022 was the worst year ever for U.S. bonds (CNBC)

• The work-from-anywhere war is beginning (Wired)

• ‘Alexa, why do we keep buying you?” (NYT)

• The outlets trying to replace Twitter (Axios)

• U.S. job report breathes life into Fed’s ‘soft landing’ scenario (Reuters)

4. Book of the Day: Fans Have More Friends

Research shows that 61 percent of Americans feel lonely, misunderstood, and left out. And those are the numbers before the pandemic enforced isolation.

There is also evidence that loneliness can impact your physical health. So how do we go from being lonely to belonging? Becoming a sports fan may be the first step.

In Fans Have More Friends, sports fans, dads, and data analysts David Sikorjak and Ben Valenta argue that fandom can not only increase our sense of belonging but also serves as a powerful antidote to loneliness because sports fans experience increased social connection.

What they didn’t realize was how deep that connection was, the potential it carried for individual and societal wellness, or the opportunities it offered for adult friendships, making and keeping friends, and family ties.

“Their theory is simple: if we want to be less lonely, we need to belong to a community or something greater than ourselves.”

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5. Short Squeez Picks

• A list of predictions made in 1923 about 2023

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• How an algorithm solves Wordle

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6. Daily Visual: Egg Prices Expected to Drop after a Year of Increases

US average price for a dozen large eggs

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: Isolation

“One of the most important consequences of society’s response to COVID-19 was the clear demonstration that our need for social interactions is as fundamental as our need for proper nutrition and adequate sleep.

Physical distancing, quarantines, and lockdowns increased the incidence of depression in adults and adolescents. Past psychological studies documented that people experiencing prolonged social isolation, such as orphans and empty nesters, have an increased risk of depression and insomnia.

Monkeys raised in partial or total isolation since birth were hostile toward others and could not form adequate social attachments in adolescence or adulthood. The degree of social damage was related to the duration of social isolation.”

Source: Psychology Today

8. Memes of the Day

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