Morning Wire XX
[0] Economists are predicting that rising inflation could cost Americans more than $5 ,000 over the next year in higher food, energy, and housing prices.
[1] The inventory shortage is everywhere.
[2] The demand is across the board and across all price points.
[3] Now the Federal Reserve is warning that we may be facing a housing bubble.
[4] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[5] It's Thursday, March 31st, and this is Morning Wire.
[6] A new explosive video leaked from a meeting at Disney shows the company is doubling down on their efforts to increase sex and gender messaging in children's content.
[7] Our leadership over there has been so welcoming to my like, like, not at all secret gay agenda.
[8] And China's worst COVID outbreak in two years is wreaking havoc on the residents of Shanghai.
[9] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[10] Stay tuned.
[11] We have the news you need to know.
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[17] As inflation continues to hit record rates, new data from the Census Department shows that for the first time, the average sale price of a new home in the U .S. is above half a million dollars.
[18] Now, the Federal Reserve is warning that a housing bubble could be brewing.
[19] Here with more is DailyWire's Cabot Phillips.
[20] So Cabot first, tell us just how drastic this price increase has been and then we'll get into the root causes.
[21] Yeah, if anyone's house hunting right now, this won't come as a huge shock.
[22] But according to the monthly residential sales report from the Census Bureau, the average new home sold for $511 ,000 in February.
[23] For context, that is a 25 % spike.
[24] over the last year alone and nearly double the average price of a new home in 2012.
[25] Cities with the biggest spikes were Phoenix, Miami, and Tampa, but overall it was houses in southeastern states that saw the largest spike in 2021.
[26] But again, it's not isolated to any one spot.
[27] It's really happening everywhere across the country.
[28] Right, just really a countrywide issue here.
[29] Obviously, prices on a lot of things are going up these days, but do we know about the main reasons for the spike specifically in housing costs?
[30] Well, it's a combination of things for sure.
[31] Obviously, inflation is playing a role in driving prices up across the board.
[32] Anytime you've got an 8 % inflation rate year to year, you're going to see prices on everything go up, and houses aren't exempt from that.
[33] As the price of lumber and fuel go up, it just costs more to build a house these days.
[34] A big part of the current spike can also be attributed to COVID lockdowns.
[35] During the pandemic, new construction projects were almost all halted, and that means the number of houses now up for sale is just lower than usual.
[36] It's simple supply and demand.
[37] And unfortunately, on that front, it will likely take years for new home construction to once again meet demand.
[38] That's according to real estate companies.
[39] So a solution to the shortage isn't coming anytime soon.
[40] It doesn't look that way.
[41] No. Another interesting factor here is the rise of remote work during COVID and how during lockdowns, many people left big cities like L .A. and New York, but kept their high -paying jobs, which in many smaller cities set off bidding wars for the houses that were available in those markets.
[42] And if you're looking to escape rising home prices by renting, you're still going to be paying a premium as rental rates have also gone up 17 % compared to this time last year.
[43] Now, the Federal Reserve weighed in on the possibility of a potential housing bubble this week.
[44] What'd they say?
[45] Yeah, the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank has a research index that measures different variables of the housing market, like income per capita, housing rates, long -term interest rates, things like that.
[46] And they published a fairly alarming post on their website this week.
[47] They say home prices that become, quote, unhinged from fundamentals and, quote, abnormal for the first time since the boom of the early 2000s.
[48] They added that although the underlying causes for the housing boom this go around are different than they were in 2008, there are similar levels of disconnect between price and value, and that's what's concerning them.
[49] They referred to what we're seeing now as, quote, market exuberance.
[50] In other words, people are overpaying for houses and eventually that's got to stop somewhere.
[51] So is there any end in sight here for the escalating prices?
[52] Yeah, as always, it just depends on who you ask.
[53] Some real estate experts say that increasing mortgage rates should cool the market a bit.
[54] Remember, mortgage rates were down around 2 % during the pandemic, so a lot of people were simply able to afford houses that a few years earlier would have been out of their price range.
[55] But rates are already up around 4 % for most people, and that number is expected to continue climbing over the next year, which will theoretically lower the purchasing power of most buyers.
[56] and in turn cause prices to go down.
[57] But others say that until the supply of houses meets the overwhelming demand that we're seeing right now, prices are just going to continue to rise.
[58] Well, let's hope we're not seeing a rerun of the 2008 crash.
[59] Cabot, thanks for the reporting.
[60] Anytime.
[61] That's Daily Wires, Cabot Phillips.
[62] Coming up, a leaked video from Disney has parents concerned.
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[70] Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially signed the parental rights and education bill into law on Monday, meaning public schools are banned from discussing sexuality and gender identity with children in kindergarten through third grade.
[71] But the fallout over Disney's response to the new law continues.
[72] Now a leaked video from a company -wide meeting on March 21st has many people outraged.
[73] In the video, a Disney creator openly states she has a, quote, secret gay agenda for children's entertainment.
[74] Here to give us the details on the video and how people inside the company are reacting is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham.
[75] So, Megan, tell us about this leaked video.
[76] Well, you know, to start, there were actually a few explosive moments from that video leak.
[77] So let's start with the one that seems to be getting the most attention.
[78] This is audio of Disney writer and executive producer, Latoya Raveno, talking about her experience working on Disney children's shows.
[79] I don't have to be afraid to, like, let's have these two people.
[80] characters kiss, let's in the background, like I was just wherever I could just basically adding queerness.
[81] No one would stop me and no one was trying to stop me. So some important context for this is that Raveno just inked a new deal with Disney to launch some new preschool programming.
[82] So understandably, that's a little disconcerting to a lot of parents who for the most part don't want any sexual content of any kind in their kids' content.
[83] So it seems to confirm some of the worst suspicions about not just Disney, but Hollywood in general.
[84] And I'd say it's really just compounding the incredibly negative PR cycle that Disney's in right now.
[85] And of course, it wasn't the only somewhat explosive revelation from that video leak.
[86] We also heard Disney's corporate president, Carrie Burke.
[87] I'm here as a mother of two queer children, actually.
[88] One transgender gender child, and one pansexual child, and also as a leader.
[89] Right after adding that context, Burke seemed to reference Disney's reimagined initiative that is asking for 50 % of characters and content to come from underrepresented groups.
[90] Typically, that includes LGBT characters.
[91] Another clip showed an activist from an outside LGBT organization telling gay and trans Disney staffers that DeSantis wants to, quoting here, erase you, criminalize your existence, and take your kids.
[92] Yet another clip showed Disney's diversity and inclusion manager explaining that the company no longer says ladies and gentlemen or boys and girls at their theme parks as part of an effort to erase gender distinctions.
[93] So overall, you have to say this is a pretty eye -opening peak into the politics at Disney.
[94] Right, but since then we've seen also the hashtag boycott Disney trending.
[95] So do you think consumer opinions will ultimately sway these execs at Disney?
[96] Well, I wondered about that myself, and so I asked a Disney executive about it, and this is a guy who's actually very unhappy with the fact that the company decided to come out against the parental rights bill, and he told me that boycotts really don't move the needle much.
[97] Mostly, he said, it's because Disney is such a massive multinational company that bad PR tends to stay mostly localized to the U .S., and it's not going to do as much damage as boycotters think.
[98] What he said does tend to spook the boards of directors is negative reaction from shareholders.
[99] So with that, I went and asked investment manager and finance author Jerry Boyer, what he thought about that.
[100] Now, he was at that shareholder meeting where Disney CEO Bob Chappick reversed course on keeping the company out of the political fight in Florida.
[101] Here's what Boyer told me. I was at that annual meeting and all the pressure came from one side, all of it, 100%.
[102] then what I saw was a bunch of outrage headlines from conservatives about how Disney is attacking the parental rights act well okay I mean that's bad that they did that but how about if you'd shown up of all the things that people were saying on social media about how mad they were at Disney how many of those people are Disney shareholders a lot of them it's a big company with a lot of shareholders what if you just logged on I mean it's easy you to log on and ask a question if that had happened I don't think things would have ended the same way Interesting.
[103] So shareholder meetings may become the next frontier for activism.
[104] Yeah, if people want to have an effect, they may. All right.
[105] Well, Megan, thanks for reporting.
[106] Anytime.
[107] That's Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[108] One of China's largest cities, Shanghai, suddenly imposed a widespread lockdown this week in response to rapidly rising COVID cases.
[109] Here to explain the impact this lockdown could have on both the city and international trade is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
[110] So, Ian, what do we know about what's happening in China?
[111] Well, on Monday, half of Shanghai, the financial capital of China, went into lockdown in response to what authorities think is a COVID -19 outbreak that is getting out of control.
[112] On Sunday, Shanghai announced a two -part lockdown of the city and then reported a record 3 ,500 new COVID cases, doubling the number of infections every few days.
[113] Again, these are numbers from the Chinese government, so we can assume they're massively under -reporting the true numbers.
[114] And what's interesting here is that we're looking at an experimental lockdown strategy.
[115] On Monday, authorities were putting up barricade shutting off parts of the city with public transport shut down in many areas.
[116] All the residents living east and south of a river which devise the city will be under lockdown until Friday morning.
[117] At that point, the lockdown will end and shift over to the other side of the river.
[118] Authorities also resisted imposing a lockdown for weeks, at least in part because of the economic importance of Shanghai.
[119] Some companies based in the city, such as Tesla, spent manufacturing for a few days, while other factories have been allowed to continue in a closed -loop bubble system.
[120] And the sudden change in policy has sparked panic among residents.
[121] First off, people are having to prepare to be both forced to stay in their homes for an unknown amount of time, and then prepare to be placed in a quarantine facility if they test positive.
[122] Here's a CNN -plus correspondent describing his experience in Shanghai right now.
[123] If you test positive, then you're immediately taken to one of those centralized quarantine centers.
[124] So to do that, I've packed a go -back I brought the essentials, things like tissues, deodorant because you're in very close quarters with other people, sanitation wipes, anything to try to clean yourself because they don't have access to a lot of that running water and basic necessities of really trying to keep hygiene in check.
[125] My real concern is this guy.
[126] So my dog, a lot of people have pets here.
[127] You are separated from your pets.
[128] And there have been some horror stories of pets being even killed.
[129] they have been concerned to carry the virus.
[130] And then there's the mass panic and chaos as people rush to get basic necessities like food before the lockdown began, with the phrase snatch groceries first, then get a COVID test, becoming an anthem for Shanghai's lockdown, as the economists put it.
[131] Now, you mentioned Shanghai's role as the financial capital of China.
[132] Is there a concern that this lockdown could have international impacts?
[133] Oh, definitely.
[134] For now, many of the city's major production centers, and its port remain running, but even if they do stay open, the international supply chain is going to feel the strain, as the flow of goods from factories to the port is going to be hit as the lockdown hits truck drivers and storage facilities to name just a few links of the chain.
[135] Really, this is going to be the ultimate test of China's zero COVID strategy, and given how much they rely on their export economy, it'll be interesting to see whether a self -inflicted collapse of the supply chain on their end will have any further consequences as major importers of Chinese goods are already signaling a desire to move away from their dependence on China.
[136] Meanwhile, this is yet another factor that could add to the ongoing supply chain problems.
[137] Ian, thanks for reporting.
[138] Thanks, Georgia.
[139] That's Daily Wires, Ian Howard.
[140] Other stories we're tracking this week.
[141] Senator Susan Collins has come out as the first Republican senator to support Judge Katangi Brown Jackson's appointment to the Supreme Court.
[142] And a NASA astronaut returned to Earth on Wednesday after spending 355 days at the International Space Station, which is a U .S. record.
[143] Mark Vanda Hai came back in a Russian capsule and landed in Kazakhstan.
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