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The old normal?
Nature is healing... at least from the perspective of employers looking to push return-to-office mandates. The share of Americans working from home has fallen below 26% according to new Census data, the lowest level since the pandemic began.
At the peak of the WFH boom in March 2021, some 37% of us were logging on remotely at least once a week, as employees settled into routine Zoom meetings and workdays without the commute. By comparison, there are now only 7 states in the US where more than a third of the workforce have weekly work-from-home days.
The overall figures mask a serious regional deviation: just 13% of people surveyed in Wyoming reported anyone working from home in their household, while their neighbors to the south in Colorado reported nearly triple the rate — similar to the more densely populated states of the North East.
Despite the new Census data, questions being raised about the productivity of remote workers, and an ever-growing cacophony of calls to return to the office from companies across the US, there’s still a lot of debate around the pandemic-born trend. Only 2 days ago, for example, a Stanford economics professor argued that remote work is “here to stay” and declared the 5-day office work week “dead” in an opinion piece for the NYT.
Lost Sol
Goldman Sachs’ latest quarterly results, released on Tuesday, revealed profits that declined 33% year-over-year, compounding a weak Q2, when the bank’s bottom line shrunk 58%.
That wasn’t the only development yesterday where the investment giant skipped a beat. CEO David Solomon has also decided to step back from his side hustle — by night, performing as a DJ under the moniker DJ D-Sol — due to “media attention” surrounding the hobby reportedly distracting him from his day job of leading one of Wall Street’s most vaunted firms.
Below decks
In his 5-year tenure, the CEO has come under fire for a series of controversies: seeking to impose corporate discipline in Goldman’s loose partner structure; sparring over bonuses and company restructuring; overseeing the infamous 1MBD fund; and paying off sexual harassment settlements.
Now, with Goldman’s earnings reaching a 3-year low on consumer losses, the company is pulling back on its efforts to pivot toward “Main Street”. With the launch of Marcus products in 2016, the bank was looking to build a sturdier business — dealmaking is wildly profitable, but much harder to predict than steady fee-generating businesses like managing deposits and wealth management.
But, as it turns out, building a “boring” business based on deposits, loans, and credit cards was harder than anticipated — so, for now, Goldman will stick to what it knows best: the world of high finance.
Gigflation
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Film wasn’t just a record-breaking concert movie when it came out last Friday: it also gave many of her devoted fans a chance to guarantee they got a good seat for ~$20 if they missed out on tickets for the real thing... and don’t fancy forking out $11,000 for resale spots.
It’s not just Swifties who’ve been suffering from the ticketing uptick in recent years, either. The average price to go and see one of the top 100 North American tours in 2023 — from Sheeran to Springsteen — will now set you back $120.11, according to data from Pollstar cited by the WSJ. For context, tickets for the same sort of shows cost $62.50 on average in 2009.
That’s showbiz
Despite rising ticket prices and long-standing issues with online vendors and resellers, American gig-goers haven’t been dissuaded from getting their entertainment fix. Indeed, the rip-roaring success of shows from artists like Swift and Beyonce led the Bank of America to highlight live gigs as the clear star of the media and entertainment industry in its recent “Funflation In Full Force” report.
With concert culture flying in the wake of summer’s much-reported Barbenheimer boom, will 2023 be remembered (say it quietly) as the year that America got its appetite for in-person entertainment and experiences back after an elongated pandemic slump?
• The FBI’s annual crime report published yesterday found that violent crime dropped 1.7% last year… while property crime rose 7.1%.
• Sub-standard: 84-year-old British bakery Greggs now has 100 more UK stores than sandwich maker Subway.
• A long-lost miniature model of an X-wing fighter from the original 1977 Star Wars film has sold at auction for an astronomical $3.1 million.
• Have a nose around the 40 "coolest neighborhoods" in the world.
• The changing faces of romance novel covers over time.
Quick cut: Which much-loved confectionery product, generally on sale from January to April each year, is reportedly getting more expensive this season? [Answer below].
