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- 🌊 Why Landlords HATE This President
🌊 Why Landlords HATE This President
Plus: Have cars destroyed cities?
Imaging having Stegosaurus money...
Ken Griffin, a multibillionaire who started his hedge fund out of his Harvard dorm room, just bought a Stegosaurus fossil for $45M. For those keeping track at home, this is a new record. This dude is about to have the greatest “guess what I have in my garage” dinner party surprise of all time. And, Jeff Goldblum, please stay away from there…
💸 Biden to restrict rent increases?
🏆 This TV show just set an Emmy record
🤦♂️ Trump shooting condemned by... OMG
–Max and Max
KEY STORY
Rent Hike Caps
President Biden unveiled a proposal to restrict rent increases
The move comes as polls show inflation and high housing costs are among voters’ top concerns: A record 23M renters spent 30%+ of their income on rent and utilities in 2022, the last year for which data is available
The plan would cut tax credits for large (50+ units) landlords if they raise rent by more than 5% in a year. It would apply to 20M US rental properties but exclude new buildings or ones that are undergoing major renovations
Libertarian and housing groups said the policy would harm renters by disincentivizing new property construction
Dig Deeper
In announcing the plan, Biden said, “While the prior administration gave special tax breaks to corporate landlords, I’m working to lower housing costs for families… We’re going to make sure we cap rents… so corporate greed can’t take over”
Analysts are skeptical the bill, which will face pushback from libertarian and housing groups, will pass Congress
KEY STORY
China’s “Socialist” AI
China’s government is investigating AI companies’ models to ensure they “embody core socialist values,” the Financial Times reported
Chinese entrepreneurs told the FT that government teams have appeared at their offices and demanded to sit in their conference rooms and audit their models. The regulators feed questions – including many about politically sensitive topics and Xi Jinping – to the models and ensure the answers meet the government’s standards
The companies have to keep tweaking their programs until the answers are satisfactory to the officials – a process that can take months
Dig Deeper
The process is forcing some companies to prevent their chatbots from issuing any politics-related answers
“To avoid potential trouble, some large models have implemented a blanket ban on topics related to President Xi,” one programmer said
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has created its own chatbot explicitly based on Xi Jinping’s political philosophy, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”
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KEY STORY
Long Live the Mice
A new drug extended mice life expectancies by 25%
IL-11 is a protein that helps animals’ bodies develop. Later in life, though, it can cause the body to wrongly detect infections, triggering inflammation that can harm the body and accelerate aging
In a new study published in the journal Nature, deleting the gene that codes for the IL-11 protein in mice led them to live up to 25% longer, experience lower rates of cancer, and be leaner with healthier fur, better strength, and improved muscle function
Dig Deeper
The researchers said the finding could advance the science of aging and lead to anti-aging treatment for humans, although they cautioned that testing anti-aging drugs on humans can be complicated, given the risks and time involved
With that said, one IL-11-targeting drug is currently in early-stage human trials to see if it can treat a type of lung disease
KEY STORY
Tale of Two Parties
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley – two of Trump’s rivals in the Republican primary – both endorsed the former president in a show of party unity at the RNC Tuesday
DeSantis warned against a second Biden term, saying, “America cannot afford four more years of a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ presidency” – a reference to the 1989 comedy “Weekend at Bernie’s,” about employees who pretend their dead boss is still alive – while Haley said, “You don’t have to agree with [Trump] 100% of the time to vote for him”
Dig Deeper
Meanwhile, Democratic calls for Biden to step down grew
A new AP/Norc poll found that 65% of Democrats believe President Biden should withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, while Rep. Adam Schiff – one of the House’s top Democrats and a current Senate candidate – called on Biden to “pass the torch” and step aside in the 2024 race
It also emerged that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.–NY) told Biden that it’d be better for the country if he dropped out
According to NBC News, Biden has told Democratic leaders in private that the debate about his future is over. He is reportedly angry that many continue to hold it
RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office
💰 EssilorLuxottica – the Italian-French company that owns Ray-Bans, Oakley, and Sunglass Hut – agreed to purchase the streetwear brand Supreme for $1.5B
🇹🇼Donald Trump said it would be “very, very difficult” for the US to defend Taiwan. He added that the island nation “stole” America’s chip industry and “should pay” for the US to defend it
🏀 The WNBA will reportedly receive $2.2B over the NBA’s new 11-year media rights deal starting in the 2025-26 season. The deal marks a significant increase from the $50M the WNBA currently receives annually through partnerships with Disney, Ion, CBS, and Amazon
🤒President Biden tested positive for Covid on Wednesday afternoon. The diagnosis comes as cases surge across the US
🗣️ J.D. Vance delivered his VP acceptance speech at the RNC. He painted a picture of establishment politicians sending jobs overseas and working-class Americans to war, adding that Trump “was right on all of these issues when Biden was wrong”
COMMUNITY
🧠Yesterday’s question: If you could only listen to one artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?
Hands down, the Beatles-they’ve been the soundtrack to my life and have such a collection with varying styles, I never get bored. Music for every mood and timeless!
Freddy Mercury! Is there even another choice, because everyone else bites the Dust! (why should you guys be the only ones with horrible puns?!?)
Ye. Nobody has as diverse and influential discography as him. Simply the greatest artist.
If I could only listen to one artist, right now it would be Chappel Roan!!!!!! IDK what she is putting in those songs but i cant get enough
🤔Today’s Question: If anyone from history could have a podcast, who would you choose?
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
🤦♂️ Hear this, Jodie Foster? “Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance,” John Hinckley Jr. – who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981 – wrote on X about the attempt on Trump’s life
🏆 #BearGate: The FX series “The Bear” set a new Emmy record for a comedy series with 23 nominations this year. Some are saying FX cheated by submitting the show for the less competitive comedy category
“The Bear” summed up in a single GIF.
🧈I can’t believe it’s not climate change! Savor, a Bill Gates-backed California startup, has reportedly developed a complex process to create a new type of dairy-free “dairy” product
🇺🇸 Kings HATE this one simple trick: Archaeologists traced five musket balls in Massachusetts back to the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” which led to the American Revolutionary War in 1775
🤬Trolling charity… nice: A YouTuber’s charity auction has faced several trolls, with bids soaring to $500,000 and beyond. Some of the bids were made with fake emails or stolen credit card info
ROCA VOTES
Have Cars Destroyed Cities?
A recent analysis published in the journal Environment International found that US cities are among the world’s least walkable. The report looked at data from 850M people in 800 cities across 61 countries and found that the 100 least walkable cities are all in North America.
Are cars to blame?
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which created 60,000 miles of new roads. The US economy was booming, and this act invested the equivalent of 5% of GDP in public infrastructure to accommodate the boom. The book “Carmageddon” highlights how this affected a city like Houston.
In 1950, Houston had just one highway and a population of roughly 500,000. In the following years, it developed a series of highways along which the city sprawled (one of those highways – the Katy Freeway – is 26 lanes wide at one point). The infrastructure helped Houston become the US’ fourth-most populous city, yet despite its nearly five-fold population growth, the population in central Houston – “the 610 loop” – barely budged. Today, nine in ten Houston residents drive to work.
This didn’t just play out in Houston: “Houston, along with Phoenix and Los Angeles and several other sunbelt cities, really grew around the transportation infrastructure they built in the early post World War II era,” wrote Kyle Shelton, the author of the book “Power Moves.”
Yet he doesn’t blame Eisenhower or Houston’s 1950s city planners for the social, cultural, and environmental consequences, arguing that they would have been impossible to foresee.
“Cars Destroyed Our Cities,” a popular Instagram and X account, documents car-reliant American cities and their impacts. These allegedly include economic consequences (For example: It raises the cost of living because people need cars), health consequences (Example: People walk less and are more likely to be overweight), and environmental consequences (Example: High carbon emissions and pollution).
Meanwhile, Europe dominates the list of walkable cities. Whereas US cities boomed in the car era, many European cities existed for centuries, millennia, or longer. This – plus certain regulations – has made the cities much more dense and walkable than their American counterparts. Studies suggest this makes their inhabitants more social, healthier, and happier than Americans.
Yet this isn’t a one-sided debate.
The US’ cars and highway system helped build it into an economic powerhouse with both the largest GDP and highest GDP per capita of any country with 10M+ people.
Some argue that the US was destined to become reliant on cars, given its vastness: Most of its cities faced few geographic constraints, and New York is roughly as far from Denver as Paris is from Moscow.
Others claim that car-reliant cities are better for Americans, who arguably have a greater preference for larger homes and property than Europeans.
That leads to this week’s questions: Are American cities too dependent on cars? Who has better cities: The US or Europe? Would you rather live in a dense or sprawling city? Have cars destroyed US cities?
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
Really? No love for Nickelback as the artist you’d choose to listen to for the rest of your life? We thought Roca Nation had taste…
On a more serious note, we made a typo in our story about Musk pledging $45M a year to a pro-Trump super PAC. We wrote “Trump — who endorsed Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Clinton in 2016…” when it should’ve read “Musk — who endorsed Obama in 2008 and 2012 and Clinton in 2016…”
Indeed, Donald Trump did not endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016. Thank you for all those who corrected us
–Max and Max