Author: openjargon

• After traveling to 50 cities in Europe, I've discovered some beautiful hidden gems.
• Bath, England, is a great place to visit for Roman ruins and beautiful architecture.
• I also loved traveling to Bruges, Belgium, which is both historic and romantic.

I've visited 50 cities in Europe, and while I love popular destinations like London and Paris, I always try to seek out beautiful hidden gems around the world.

With over 13 million Americans predicted to travel to Europe this summer, there's never been a better time to check out the off-the-beaten-path destinations on your travel bucket list.

These are 5 underrated destinations in Europe I recommend visiting.

Bath, England is just a 90-minute train ride from London.

As you probably could have guessed from this city's name, Bath, England, is known for its Roman baths. These baths, dating back to 70 AD, are some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the world.

Bath is known for its beautiful Georgian architecture, which can be admired in places like the Royal Crescent, which features a crescent-shaped row of 30 houses.

I also loved visiting the Circus, which is made up of townhouses arranged in a circular pattern. These areas showcase Georgian architecture and are what makes walking around Bath feel unique.

If you're a book lover, you can visit during the annual Jane Austen Festival in September, where people dress up, and the city is taken back in time.

The train from London to Bath takes about 90 minutes, making this city the perfect day trip.

Mostar is a beautiful city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mostar is a city that really surprised me. It didn't look like anywhere else I'd ever been, with the towering Ottoman Bridge connecting both sides of the city. The 16th-century bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The city also has a well-preserved Ottoman quarter with charming cobblestone streets. During my time in Mostar, I loved drinking Bosnian coffee, taking in the views of the city, and feasting on local dishes like ćevapi.

Bruges, Belgium, is a beautiful and romantic city.

Bruges, Belgium, is a well-preserved medieval town. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and visiting feels like stepping back in time.

The best thing I did was take a boat ride on the canal, admiring the architecture while cruising through Minnewaterpark, commonly referred to as the Lake of Love.

Bruges is a laid-back destination that makes a convenient day trip from nearby Paris and Brussels. In my opinion, the city is perfect for couples looking to indulge in Belgian beer and chocolate.

Heidelberg, Germany, embraces modern life without losing its historic charm.

Heidelberg, Germany, has striking views around every corner. The city is home to a centuries-old castle as well as the oldest university in Germany.

I enjoyed walking along Philosophenweg (also called Philosopher's Way), where professors sought solitude and academic inspiration. The path was especially beautiful during my trip in the fall.

We loved spending time in the city, which had lots of nice restaurants and cool bars. Heidelberg does an amazing job of embracing the new while holding on to its historic charm.

Andorra La Vella is a hidden gem in the Pyrenees Mountains.

Andorra La Vella is the capital of Andorra, which is located in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain.

Every restaurant we dined at featured dishes influenced by the surrounding countries. If you want to try authentic Andorran food, head to a borda — a traditional house once used for agricultural purposes. Now, these buildings are used as charming restaurants.

Andorra la Vella is a great day trip from Barcelona, but in my opinion, the city deserves more than a one-day visit.

• Russian children will be sent to summer camp in North Korea at the end of July, per RIA Novosti.
• The initiative follows a new strategic partnership agreement between Russia and North Korea.
• The camp includes a statue of North Korea's founder, an aquarium, a beach, and an archery range.

A group of Russian school children will go to a summer camp in North Korea at the end of July, Grigory Gurov, the chair of the Movement of the First, told Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti.

According to a RIA Novosti Telegram post, Gurov said a large number of Russian children are expected to attend the camp, where he added the conditions will be "excellent."

Gurov, who leads the youth movement started by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2022, also said the North Korean summer camp will be the equivalent of Artek.

Artek is a youth center in Crimea that was previously a camp for the Young Pioneers — a Communist organization for children during the Soviet era.

Gurov told state-run Russian news agency TASS that Russian children will be sent to Songdowon International Children's Camp, with the trip tentatively set for July 24 to August 2.

According to Songdowon's website, the camp exists to "help North Korea develop relations with foreign countries."

It said that international visitors from Russia, China, Thailand, Mongolia, and Mexico are welcomed each year, with their places subsidized by the state.

The website says the campsite includes a statue of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, surrounded by children, a full-size water park, an archery range, an aquarium, and a beach.

Songdowon did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Gurov also told TASS that Russia would invite North Korean children to attend Russian summer camps, including Artek and others, as part of an exchange program.

He said there are also plans for children to go to other Russia-friendly countries, including Vietnam and China.

Last month, the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement, which North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un said upgraded their relationship to a "new high of alliance."

The new agreement includes a clause requiring the countries to come to each other's aid should there be aggression against either of them.

It also set guidelines for deepening ties on political, trade and investment, cultural, and humanitarian fields, as well as the security sphere, according to TASS.

Russian tourists of all ages will also be able to vacation on North Korean beaches this summer, according to a RIA Novosti Telegram post from April.

It said that tour programs have been developed lasting between eight and 12 days.

• The Netherlands said the first F-16s it's giving to Ukraine are due to arrive in the country "soon."
• Denmark also said the F-16s it's giving to Ukraine are due to arrive this summer.
• Military experts say the jets will aid Ukraine's fight against Russia but won't be a total game changer.

The first F-16s that Ukraine is to receive from the Netherlands are due to arrive "soon," according to the Dutch defense minister, who said that export licenses for the fighter jets had now been issued.

Kajsa Ollongren said on Monday that the delivery of the "first aircraft will proceed soon," Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported, according to a translation by the Kyiv Independent.

She did not say exactly when they would arrive, or give any other details about their delivery, stating that there were "operational security" concerns.

Denmark, another Ukrainian ally that is providing it with F-16s, has said that its first jets are due to arrive in Ukraine this summer.

It's unclear which of the jets will arrive first.

Ukraine has been promised an estimated 85 jets from Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium. This includes 24 from the Netherlands.

Military experts say they expect the aircraft to be a boost for Ukraine, though not a total game changer in its fightback against Russia's invasion.

Multiple experts previously told Business Insider that they expect the jets to boost Ukraine's air defenses by shooting down Russian drones and missiles, replenish the Ukrainian aircraft already lost to Russia, and deter Russian jets.

They said the jets could also do some limited raids close to the front lines or even into Russian territory to hit high-value targets, but that they expect such events to be limited as it would put the F-16s in extreme danger.

However, some said that not enough jets had been promised to Ukraine to make a major difference, particularly during this summer when only a proportion of the ones promised are likely to arrive.

Some experts also said that Ukraine's allies should have pledged the jets earlier, as it would have meant that areas like training and integrating the aircraft into Ukraine's military would have been solved earlier.

"If the West donated F-16s a year earlier, then most of these problems would be solved by now," Michael Clarke, a Russia and Ukraine expert and a British national security advisor, told BI.

"But as usual, we left it until the last possible moment when it would make a difference and then expected the Ukrainians to work miracles with them, which is not going to happen," he added.

Ukraine has been asking for F-16s since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, but the US only dropped its opposition to allies sending the US-made planes in May 2023.

Experts previously told BI that Ukraine also had not been promised enough.

Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and a defense-strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told BI that it's unfair to expect Ukraine to make any breakthroughs with the jets unless it gets many more.

He said the US has major dominance in the air because it employs "hundreds of aircraft with extensive support systems on the ground," and expecting Ukraine to be similarly dominant would not be fair.

Even so, he said: "Whenever they arrive, that's a good time for Ukraine."

• BlackRock is poised to make a founder richer than its own CEO with its latest acquisition.
• The asset manager has struck a $3.2 billion deal to buy Preqin, a private-markets data provider.
• Founder Mark O'Hare should make about $2 billion, well exceeding Larry Fink's $1.7 billion net worth.

BlackRock is poised to mint a bigger billionaire than Larry Fink with its latest deal.

The world's largest asset manager has agreed to acquire Preqin, a private-markets data and analytics provider, for £2.55 billion ($3.2 billion).

Preqin's founder, Mark O'Hare, is set to pocket a cool $2 billion after tax from the transaction — more than the BlackRock cofounder and CEO's estimated $1.7 billion fortune, Bloomberg reported.

O'Hare owns almost 80% of Preqin through Valhalla Ventures, his family's holding company, per the report. As part of the deal, he will join BlackRock — which had over $10 trillion of client assets at the end of March — as a vice chair.

Preqin competes with Bloomberg's terminal business, offering information on about 30,000 private market investors, 60,000 fund managers, and 190,000 funds. It's on track to make about $240 million of revenue this year, and has grown by about 20% for the past three years.

BlackRock said in a press release that the tie-up would bolster its offering to clients, bring with it some 4,000 relationships, and give a boost to Aladdin, its portfolio-management software.

"Bringing together Preqin's data and research tools with Aladdin's complementary workflow capabilities in a unified platform will create a preeminent private markets technology and data provider," BlackRock said.

The takeover marks BlackRock's latest foray into the alternative investment world. In January, the index-fund giant agreed to buy Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investment fund, for $12.5 billion.

O'Hare is no stranger to building and selling businesses. He founded and then sold another financial-data business, Citywatch, to Reuters in 1998 before going on to set up Preqin in 2002.

• A fifth of 15-24-year-olds in 2023 were NEETs, per the International Labour Organization.
• The acronym stands for not being engaged in education, employment, or training.
• Poor mental health, lack of financial safety, and disconnection from society are partly to blame. 

A growing number of young people globally are struggling to stay in work or school.

According to the International Labour Organization, about a fifth of people between 15 and 24 worldwide in 2023 were considered NEETs, which stands for not being engaged in education, employment, or training.

That's a level not seen in nearly two decades.

Recent research from the St. Louis Federal Reserve's Institute for Economic Equity, previously reported by Business Insider, looked at the challenges young people aged 18 to 24 are experiencing in today's economy. It found that more than one in three have no income at all.

Some are out of work due to disability, mental health issues, or a lack of skills, while others — known as "voluntary NEETs" — have chosen the lifestyle and are supported by the family or the state.

"When kids become disconnected from school and work, there's just a downward spiral that is too often going to result," Sen. Tim Kaine, who's introduced legislation to help at-risk youths find jobs and receive job training, previously told BI. "Some people can figure their way out of that spiral, but many cannot."

Mentorship and support

Countries around the world are trying to find ways to reduce the number of NEETs. There isn't a simple solution, but there are areas that have been shown to help.

There has been an increased focus on education and mentorship. For instance, the European Commission is working with various countries to commit to the Youth Guarantee — an initiative that aims to ensure people under age 30 all have access to employment, continued training, and apprenticeships.

It seems to be working. Turkey's youth unemployment rate was 17.4% in 2023, its lowest in a decade. Nezih Allioglu, head of the Young Enterprise and Governance Association, cited encouragement and competitiveness as some of the reasons behind the boost.

But companies can also make changes. Some career and leadership experts who spoke with BI believe workplaces should adapt to become more inclusive and supportive and provide mentorship to attract and retain young people.

A focus on mental health

Kraig Kleeman, the founder and CEO of The New Workforce, told BI companies "must adapt to the current times."

"Generation Z, the newest group joining the workforce, places great importance on company values and culture," he said. "They are searching for places where they can be true to themselves, where mental health is not looked down upon but helped, and where working sometimes from home or a coffee shop is possible."

According to research by the Prince's Trust in the UK, an increase in mental health conditions and low self-confidence are key factors preventing rising numbers of young people out of work from entering employment.

It cited data from a Labour Force Survey, which found a quarter of young people who are NEETs experience some form of mental health problem, compared with 9% of those in employment.

"We know it's a very challenging time for young people, and employability programs that offer additional support around mentoring, confidence, and mental health are needed now, more than ever, to help them succeed and thrive," said Michaela Wright, Head of Sustainability for HSBC UK.

Tackling voluntary NEETs

These tactics may not work for people who are NEETs by choice, who reject the idea that being a NEET is a bad thing, and who want to reclaim the label by creating a subculture of the voluntarily dormant.

Rather than jump on the first opportunities that come along, voluntary NEETs are holding back for the right job.

Friederike Fabritius, a neuroscientist with a specialty in leadership who has worked with Google and Deloitte, and is the author of the WSJ best-seller "The Brain-Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Quit and How to Get Them to Stay," told BI companies changing with the times isn't providing a solution to the problem of voluntary NEETs.

"A person who chooses to do nothing is somebody who lacks passion, motivation, and willingness to add value to society," she said. "Rather than being more understanding, I would recommend the opposite approach."

Fabritius said she doesn't believe companies should be hiring people who are not motivated or willing to add value.

How schools and parents can help

Rather, experts say learning to be motivated should start earlier in life, at home with parents and at school.

Fabritus blames "permissive parenting" and kids being allowed on electronic devices for too many hours in the day as root causes of disconnection. She said this can lead to a lack of interest and passion, which can cause major issues later in life.

"The reason why there are so many NEETs is because they have someone financing their doing nothing — normally, it's the parents who reward them for doing nothing," she said. "They mean well but end up destroying their kids' abilities and motivation."

Change also has to start at school, Fabritus added.

"In school, you should encourage students to show up, to do something, to be active, and to add value," she said.

Better guidance

Other career experts agreed that development should start early so students understand the variety of different paths available to them.

They said choosing a career without necessary guidance can lead to frustration and regret later on, which could have been avoided.

"Career advice should not be something that happens only once a year and seems unrelated to real life," said Kleeman. "It needs to be a continuous discussion helping students see the link between their studies and how they will apply it later in actual situations."

Schools can do "much more" to bring real-life situations to the classroom, he added, by arranging partnerships with local businesses for internships and projects.

"This kind of practical approach may help create interest and show students many different paths they might take in the future," he said.

Experts remain divided over how to address the rise in NEETs, in part because no solution would work for all.

One thing is clear, however: the rise in NEETS is a global problem, and it's vital for the global economy and society to find ways to bring disconnected youth back into employment and education.

The NEET problem is big, but it can be tackled, Kleeman said.

"We must pay attention to our young people and make changes — not only because it helps business, but also because it's the correct action," he said. "Let's work hard together and assist future leaders in discovering their way. They have many things to give, and it is our job to help them show their best."

• In 2014, a game of ping-pong at work cost Miles Schwartz his internship at Salesforce. 
• Schwartz learned he prefers work environments where he can step away for a break if needed.
• As the cofounder of his own company, he says employees should be given freedom in how to work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Miles Schwartz, 33, from Montreal. Schwartz was briefly employed at Salesforce as an intern and later cofounded his own company. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I was never the best student. Anything with a lot of structure always gave me anxiety, but I thought I would thrive in business when I finished school.

After studying marketing at Concordia University, I started an internship at Salesforce. After six weeks, I was escorted out of the building after playing ping-pong outside my lunch hour.

The structured environment of a 9-to-5 job didn't allow me to thrive. I've since cofounded my own company and don't watch over employee's shoulders. It's important to give people freedom in how they work.

I didn't enjoy my time at Salesforce

I started my internship at Salesforce in September 2014 in their Toronto office.

I really didn't like the experience. I thought I'd be on business calls, schmoozing people, and going to conferences, but as a business development intern, I was mainly doing data entry and finding contacts.

As a people person, I felt out of my element. I felt like the outcast for not enjoying it. Everyone else seemed to love it there. They didn't overwork people, they compensated people properly, and there were easy paths to promotion.

I felt homesick. Going for a beer after work was part of the culture, but I'm really into health and fitness. I prefer to do my own thing after work, like running or the gym.

My hours were meant to be 9-to-5. I remember once, after staying very late the previous day, I turned up at 9:15 a.m., and my manager came up to me and said, "You do realize work starts at 9?" It made me think optics really mattered there.

I was let go after I played ping-pong in the middle of the day

The internship was meant to last four months, leading to a permanent role at the company.

One day, six weeks in, I was feeling foggy and tired. I had already taken my hourlong lunch break, but later in the day, a more senior colleague asked if I wanted to play ping-pong in the office with him.

We played for at least 30 minutes, and I was back at my desk within an hour. I intended to stay late that evening to make up for the lost time.

When I got back, my manager told me I couldn't disappear in the middle of the day, especially as an intern, and that this wasn't a good look if I wanted to get promoted at the company.

I explained I often stayed late to finish my work, but she told me the job was 9-to-5. I felt Salesforce didn't want entry-level employees to work their own hours or do things their own way.

I told her I didn't want to get promoted. I wanted to finish the internship and leave. However, my manager politely said I shouldn't stay at all, so security came, took my computer and badge, and escorted me out of the building.

I had no hard feelings about it. Why would they spend their energy teaching me about the company if I had no desire to be there?

I thrived in a less structured working environment

I thrive in an environment where I can listen to my body and step away from work for a short while if needed. In a flow state, I can work a 13-hour day, and it's smooth sailing, but some days, you just don't have it. That day at Salesforce, I just didn't have it. I wanted to play ping-pong and clear my head.

It reinforced that I didn't thrive in structure, but I started to worry I wouldn't find a workplace where I belonged.

I tried another sales job, working for a friend's uncle, but I only lasted a few weeks because I didn't enjoy making 90 cold calls a day and getting hung up on.

I took a break from corporate work and started modeling to make money. Eventually, I arranged meetings with startups, but none felt like a natural fit until I landed an interview with Flinks, a fintech startup, in April 2017. They offered me a role as the director of business development.

I was nervous I was going to fail. The weekend before I started, I asked one of the founders a few questions, including where he wanted me to work from and what companies I should reach out to initially. He responded, "Why the hell are you asking me? You're in charge."

The second he said that, I knew this was exactly the opportunity I was looking for. The freedom to do whatever I wanted motivated me. In a corporate job, I hated being made to do 90 cold calls a day, but I started doing 200 cold calls a day on my own.

Over time, I started to build a network and speak at conferences for the company. After a year, I became the chief sales officer. During my time there, Flinks became one of the fastest-growing fintechs in Canada.

I cofounded my own company and want people to have freedom in how they work

I left Flinks in 2019 and cofounded my own company, Zūm Rails.

I work extremely hard, probably close to 50 hours a week, but never overwork to the point of exhaustion.

Nowadays, I can walk my dog in the mountains during the day if I want to and reply to emails in the evening when I'm back.

My cofounder and I aren't watching over people's shoulders at Zūm Rails.

Our hours are meant to be 9-to-5, but I think our culture is more mission-driven, and people aren't watching the clock. We hire talented specialists who all want to succeed.

We do have to have some structure to operate in a remote world as a team of over 50 people. For example, sales development representatives ensure all call notes are updated in the CRM before handing over to an account manager.

But I don't micromanage how people get their jobs done. I remember finding it weird when a senior employee asked me if they could go to a doctor's appointment in the afternoon.

Our employees have the freedom to work from wherever they feel they will perform at their best, whether it's from a coworking space, an office, or their house, as long as the work gets done to the expected standard.

Giving people the freedom to work the way they want to helps boost output.

Salesforce did not respond to a comment request from Business Insider.

• An Air Europa flight from Spain to Uruguay was diverted after encountering severe turbulence.
• A video appears to show a man being helped down from the overhead luggage bins.
• "He flew and got stuck in the roof, in the bin," a passenger sat close to him told Uruguayan TV.

An Air Europa passenger appeared to get stuck in an overhead bin when their flight experienced severe turbulence.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was flying from Madrid to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, when it had to divert early Monday morning.

In a statement shared with Business Insider, Air Europa said seven people were injured, while an "undetermined number" had minor bruises. The New York Times reported that 36 people were injured

Images shared on social media appeared to show damage to the cabin's ceiling panels. In one clip, people are seen seemingly helping a fellow passenger down from an overhead luggage compartment.

Romina Apai, a passenger on the flight, told Uruguayan TV network Teledoce that she was sitting next to the person who got stuck in the compartment.

"He flew and got stuck in the roof, in the bin. We couldn't find him," she added.

Another passenger, Evangelina Saravia, said the man appeared to be stuck in the damaged roof.

"A person was suspended between the plastic roof and the metal roof that is behind it, and had to be lowered," she told Teledoce.

"The same thing happened to a baby, I think he was one year old, who hit the roof."

Medical services attended to the Boeing 787 after it landed in Natal, Brazil.

In the statement, Air Europa said, "The aircraft will be checked to determine the extent of the damage." It added that it would send another plane to pick up the passengers.

"The company thanks the local authorities for their rapid intervention and assistance."

The incident is the latest of several instances involving severe turbulence in recent months. In May, a 73-year-old Singapore Airlines passenger died and dozens more were injured. Days later, 12 people were injured on a Qatar Airways flight.

Severe injuries due to turbulence are extremely rare. Data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows an average of less than 12 people a year were seriously injured by turbulence between 2009 and 2022.

• The US faces a severe housing affordability crisis as rents and home prices soar.
• Rents have increased by 26% since early 2020, with three in five markets still rising.
• Here are the metro areas with the highest proportion of cost-burdened tenants.

The housing affordability crisis is nearly inescapable in the US. Housing costs have skyrocketed in communities nationwide — from small towns to coastal supercities.

Rents across the country have risen by 26% since early 2020, according to a new report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies on the state of US housing. While rent growth has slowed recently as a surge in new multifamily buildings came online, three in five housing markets are still seeing growing rent prices.

Half of all tenant households were cost-burdened as of 2022, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on rent, the Harvard report found. That was the highest share since the US Census first started collecting this data, the report noted. The number who are severely cost-burdened — meaning they spend more than 50% of their income on rent — also hit a record high in 2022.

"Rents have been rising faster than incomes for decades," Alexander Hermann, a senior research associate at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing, said in a statement. "However, the pandemic-era rent surge produced an unprecedented affordability crisis that continues."

Lower-income and people of color are among the most vulnerable renters, according to the study. And certain communities across the country — from Naples, Florida, to Corvallis, Oregon — are facing some of the highest rates of cost-burdened tenants.

In Florida, there are five metro areas where more than 60% of renters are cost-burdened. Naples-Marco Island and Port St. Lucie, Florida, lead the nation in cost-burdened renters, with about 64% of tenants in both places spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

Two Pennsylvania metro areas were in the top 10 for the highest percentage of cost-burdened renters: State College and East Stroudsburg, at 63% and 61%, respectively.

Some metro areas in the US have housing markets where more than 40% of tenants are severely cost-burdened and spending over half their income on housing. According to the Harvard report, 45% of renters in Stillwater, Oklahoma, are severely cost-burdened, the highest percentage in the nation.

Corvallis, Oregon; Port St. Lucie, Florida; and State College, Pennsylvania, are the three metro areas that are in the top 10 for both cost-burdened and severely cost-burdened renters.

Renters are also increasingly locked out of buying a home. Home prices and mortgage interest rates have surged in recent years, putting homeownership out of reach for even more renters. The US home price index is 47% higher than it was in early 2020, and the median home price is about five times the median household income, Harvard's report noted.

And many homeowners are also struggling with the rising cost of insurance premiums, home repairs, and property taxes. The number of cost-burdened homeowners — those who spent more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities — rose by about three million people between 2019 and 2022, the report found.

Are you struggling with the cost of rent? We want to hear from you. Please contact these reporters at jtowfighi@businessinsider.com and erelman@businessinsider.com

• China's economy faces immediate internal challenges, with weak demand dragging on production.
• Two recent gauges of China's manufacturing activity point to strong export demand amid weak domestic sentiment.
• China's property crisis and weak consumer confidence drag on manufacturing activity.

China's economy is under siege from tariff hikes by the US and the European Union, both of which are major trading partners — but this may not be its most immediate threat.

Instead, China's sluggish internal domestic demand appears to be a more pressing issue.

In June, China's official Purchasing Managers' Index — which represents larger companies and state-owned enterprises — contracted for the second straight month.

In contrast, an S&P Global PMI reading — which reflects activity at export-oriented small and medium private businesses — showed output growth hit a three-year high in June.

That means consumer demand within China is slowing, even as demand for made-in-China products grows externally.

The divergence is important because China — the world's factory floor — could face lower global demand for some of its exports after trade tariffs kick in.

In a recent report, economists at Nomura wrote that there are "concerns that China's economy will be unable to sustain a strong recovery through depending only on exports."

The market's conviction in China's recovery is eroding, the Nomura economists wrote, with China's benchmark CSI 300 index giving up some gains after hitting a May peak.

While exports may continue to support growth in the coming months, "it probably won't overcome weakness on the domestic side," Eric Zhu, an economist at Bloomberg Economics, said on Monday.

China's unwilling consumers are dragging on factory activity

China's PMI readings underscore the challenges in the country's economy.

China is currently trying to weather a painful economic transition, which is contributing to an uneven economic landscape.

It's also facing an epic real-estate crisis, stock-market volatility, geopolitical headwinds, and demographic challenges.

The economic uncertainty is contributing to weak consumer sentiment and risk hedging. People are spending their money on gold and experiences instead of discretionary goods.

Weak consumer demand is bad for China's economy, as it can contribute to a vicious cycle of deflationary pressure on the back of slowing wage growth and consumer spending.

"The divergence between expansionary production and contractionary new orders suggests activity data on the supply side may continue to outperform demand-side activity data, which is likely to exert continued downward pressure on goods prices," the Nomura economists wrote in a separate note on Monday.

The contraction in official manufacturing PMI and a pullback in industrial profits also validate concerns of "'too little, too late' policy stimulus," Vishnu Varathan, the chief economist of Asia excluding Japan at Mizuho Bank, wrote on Monday.

"Doubts that Beijing has a handle on economic revival are justifiably mounting," Varathan added.

Bailey McInnes first noticed the house during one of her lunch hours. She likes to walk on her midday breaks, admiring the charming, little craftsman homes that dot her Northern Virginia neighborhood. The homes she passes share a lot of similarities — brick and wood, a modest front porch, details that suggest someone put in a lot of time and care a century ago. On one of these walks last fall, she noticed something new: One of the homes was gone.

McInnes assumed the builder must have a captivating vision for the vacant plot. But the replacement, to her dismay, was a "monstrosity." The facade was an awkward mess of windows and cheap-looking wood panels. The previous home's gently sloping roof had been replaced with an imposing cliff. You can probably guess the color: blinding white with black trim, the signature look favored by investors and HGTV aficionados.

After the first home fell, this cycle of replacement kept happening again and again. McInnes, who is 25 years old and works in public health, is no architecture expert. But she often commiserates with others who share similar frustrations. "People who have little to no experience are able to look in their neighborhoods and be like, 'What is happening here?'" McInnes told me. Recently she posted a video on her YouTube channel in which she phrased the question more bluntly: "Why are homes so 'ugly' now?"

These days it seems like every freshly built house comes with a standard feature: a whole bunch of haters. In Reddit forums and Facebook groups, many Americans grumble about the stifling blandness of the cookie-cutter home, the shameless excess of the suburban McMansion, the clunkiness of the modern box. And that's just the view from the front lawn. Step inside, and you'll likely encounter a mix of white walls, gray countertops, and faux-hardwood floors, copied and pasted from an episode of "Property Brothers." Most people agree that America needs more houses, but nobody seems all that thrilled with the ones being built.

Some of the gripes with homebuilding can be chalked up to not-in-my-backyard sensibilities — construction is a nuisance, and it's easier to nitpick design choices than accept change. Maybe some of it is just renters' jealousy talking. In light of the nation's housing shortage, hand-wringing over aesthetics might even seem beside the point. We need to pump out millions more homes to meet demand. If people are buying them, who really cares what they look like?

But there's a reason for this nagging discontent with new homes. The distaste is, in part, an unconscious response to big problems with how these houses are built and even larger flaws in the American dream itself. The cute craftsman and midcentury homes on younger generations' mood boards are relics of a time when land was cheap and local builders accounted for the lion's share of new construction. Now development lots are almost prohibitively expensive, and the soaring cost of materials is forcing builders to cut back on bedrock design necessities and pleasing architectural flourishes. The new economics favor large-production builders focused on scale, while a mess of micromanage-y local rules is driving up costs and forcing homes into cookie-cutter territory.

The blame for America's architectural nightmare, however, doesn't stop at production builders, rising costs, or local codes. There's something deeper going on here. Homes look this way because they're not just places where we live — they're also supposed to help us get rich. That requires playing it safe. We're supposed to think of homeownership not as a means of putting a roof over our heads but as an investment that will one day provide a massive windfall. Homes are assets to be Airbnb'd, upgraded, flaunted on Zillow, and eventually sold for a huge profit. Everyone's a home flipper now.

When every part of the homebuilding process is executed with an eye toward the bottom line, this is the result: a mix of trend-chasing eyesores and sterile subdivisions. For a generation of hopeful homeowners, neither option sounds all that appealing.

"There's this trade-off that's increasingly happening," McInnes told me. "People are like, 'I'll just take whatever.'"

Stepping into a community of new homes can sometimes feel like an eerie nightmare. The streets are obscenely wide, the lawns mostly bare. The structures themselves are haphazard arrays of garage, door, windows, and driveway. They may have splashes of brick or stone, but only in small patches that echo a sturdier past. A few variations of floor plans add some texture to the neighborhood, but paint shades are the main differentiators. You may feel disenchanted or trapped. Taken to the extreme, the scenario makes for a decent horror movie. Sure, some builders are trying to break this mold. But for most developers, the forces conspiring to make homes expensive and aesthetically distasteful are too powerful to resist.

"Builders are struggling to produce something that reaches the moderate-income level, and that may be where you get some pushback as far as ugliness and scale-back," James Wentling, an architect and the author of "Designing a Place Called Home," a thick volume on the past, present, and future of homebuilding in America, told me. "That's probably where you may be getting cookie cutter, all that kind of thing — which they have to do. They can't add all the frills."

The primary driver for the move toward mediocrity is cost — land, materials, and permitting are all huge money sucks. Prices for building materials are up a staggering 38% since early 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with a 10% rise from 2016 to 2020. New homes are roughly five times as expensive to build compared with 1980, according to price indexes from the Census Bureau. In 2022, construction costs for the typical new home came in at $392,241, while land added another $114,622, a survey by the National Association of Home Builders found. This all trickles down into the final sale price, which came in at an average of $644,750, enough for a 10% profit for the builders when you factor in marketing expenses, general overhead, and the sales commissions paid to real-estate brokers.

There's this trade-off that's increasingly happening. People are like, 'I'll just take whatever.'

As they stare down these rising costs, builders and architects have almost no choice but to streamline or opt for cheaper design elements. Homes built 50 or 100 years ago were primarily brick or wood — high-quality stuff that offers a comforting, timeless appeal. Those materials are used more sparingly nowadays. Just 25% of new-home exteriors last year were made of wood or brick, compared with 70% of homes in 1980. Builders have turned to vinyl siding or fiber cement, more affordable options that may last longer and are often easier to maintain but can contribute to a cheaper feel. Inside the home, nice touches like ceramic tile, built-in shelving, and other quality finishes have pretty much disappeared from modest homes and can be found only in "upscale" products. Those kinds of "charming details," as Wentling calls them in his book, require craftsmanship-intensive labor that's pretty much impossible to rationalize when speed and volume are the name of the game. To hit their bottom-line targets, developers are even cutting back on basics like the number and size of windows and "making homes boxier," as noted in a 2024 trend report from the housing-research firm John Burns Research and Consulting.

"I think they are downscaling them a bit to keep the price down," Peter Dennehy, the senior vice president of consulting at John Burns, told me. "But that's against the backdrop of five buyers for every home."

Builders aren't just grappling with more costly materials, pricey land, and the headaches of finding enough workers. They're also up against a complex web of local zoning, land-use rules, and building codes that drag down projects and force them to make trade-offs that leave new homes looking bland. Regulations account for one-quarter of the costs of building a new home, the NAHB estimates. Local governments can dictate everything from the size of lots to the materials used, and builders have no choice but to bend to their demands. And every locale is different, requiring builders to spend time parsing local rules instead of focusing on all the other stuff that goes into getting a home off the ground.

Along the way, the homebuilding industry has shifted from a fragmented collection of local builders to one increasingly dominated by large "production builders." The 100 largest home builders in the US sold roughly half of all new single-family homes in 2022, up from a little more than one-third two decades prior. Most of those gains came from the growth of just two companies, D.R. Horton and Lennar, a paper from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found. Those two giants were responsible for almost two-thirds of that increase in market share. Because of all the local red tape that slows down homebuilding, the industry probably won't ever be as concentrated as, say, airlines, the authors of the Harvard paper wrote. But the growth of the big guys is yet another reason more homes are starting to look and feel the same.

OK, you might ask, but aren't speed and volume both good things, given the country's housing shortage? People are starting families and moving out of their parents' houses way faster than builders are churning out even the most-stripped-down houses. Homebuilders would need to break ground at triple the current pace to keep up with demand and close the gap of 7.2 million houses in four to five years, according to one estimate from Realtor.com. But there's something else holding us back. In a country obsessed with preserving property values, taste has taken a back seat.

We're all kind of temporarily embarrassed real-estate investors, in a way.

Kate Wagner, an architecture critic at The Nation and creator of the blog McMansion Hell, remembers a time before the Great Recession when the owners of suburban behemoths were obsessed with stockpiling amenities — a jacuzzi tub, a man cave, an in-home theater. The homes might be wacky and chaotic and destined to fall out of vogue, but at least they reflected some customization. In the past decade, though, she's noticed a shift toward another dispiriting trend. Homes now just feel "primed for resale" with their neutral tones, white kitchens, and the shiplap farmhouse look that everyone's into right now. With the aid of Zillow, everyone is constantly peering into their neighbors' homes. The house-flipper mentality — renovate cheaply and inoffensively — has gone mainstream.

"It's not necessarily about creating a house that is for somebody's particular taste but for it to be seamless as an asset," Wagner told me. "People become more and more self-conscious about the way that their houses are viewed. We're all kind of temporarily embarrassed real-estate investors, in a way."

This kind of thinking extends up and down the value chain. Builders need to finish homes quickly while targeting the broadest demographic possible. In an effort to keep up with demand, they're increasingly building on spec, which means they're pulling home plans off the shelf and constructing the final product without any input from the eventual buyer. Homeowners, meanwhile, want to emulate the looks they see on HGTV shows and inside the homes around their neighborhoods, which they can browse with ease online.

"The house is almost just like liquid capital," Wagner told me. "It can't be offensive; it can't break the mold. It has to be sellable at all times."

Taste is subjective, to be sure, and it can change with time. William Morgan, an architecture critic in Providence, Rhode Island, recalls an era when the word "Victorian" was enough to get a house torn down. "Now, of course, it's been resurrected, and people are doing little Queen Anne houses and adding little shingles and turrets and stuff," he told me. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who are happy with the cookie-cutter look as long as they can call it their own. And with so many would-be home sellers staying put with their 3% mortgage rates, the market for new homes may be the best option for some buyers right now.

The grumblings over the state of home design aren't just coming from haters looking for something to hate, though. They reflect both the tough economics of the building business and a homeownership mindset that's fixated on resale values. Like McInnes, the dismayed YouTuber in Northern Virginia, you may favor homes from a bygone era. But where you see boring and neutral, someone else sees dollar signs.

James Rodriguez is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Discourse team.