Category: Business

• Increasing numbers of young Irish adults live with their parents.
• A severe housing affordability crisis is to blame.
• Rents in Ireland jumped 84% between 2010 and 2022, far more than the EU average.

Housing has become so unaffordable in Ireland that younger people are increasingly moving back in with their parents — or never leaving their childhood homes, to begin with.

According to the 2022 Irish census, 41% of people between 18 and 34 years old lived with their parents — a nearly 10% increase from about a decade ago. Among 30-year-olds, 20% were living with their parents in 2022 — a jump from the 13% who were in 2011. 

This corresponds with the rising cost of housing. Rents in Ireland spiked 84% between 2010 and 2022 — significantly higher than the average EU increase of 18% during that period. The median age of a first-time homebuyer in the country rose from 35 to 39 between 2010 and 2022.

The housing crisis is tied up with a slew of other broader societal trends. Irish young people are putting off or forgoing having children in part because they can't afford it. The country's birth rate dropped by 20% between 2012 and 2022.

The housing shortage and affordability crisis have also pushed many into homelessness. The number of unhoused people in Ireland recently hit a record high.

Like in the US, a severe shortage of housing, including a dearth of income-restricted housing, is fundamentally to blame for soaring costs. High interest rates and elevated construction costs have made matters worse.

Ireland's affordability crisis is similar in many ways to the housing crunches faced by many other countries elsewhere in Europe and in the US. Countries from the Netherlands to the UK have similarly seen demand outstrip supply, with costs soaring as a result.

And in southern Europe, a surge in real estate investment has pushed home values way up in recent years, gentrifying in-demand cities, displacing longtime residents, and preventing young people from moving out of their parents' homes. Countries like Portugal and Spain are beginning to backpedal on policies like so-called "golden visas" that encourage foreign investment and help push up home prices and rents.

• Justin Timberlake was arrested on Tuesday and charged with driving while intoxicated.
• Celebrities like Gayle King and Billy Joel have publicly defended Timberlake.
• His wife, Jessica Biel, is "not happy" but plans to be supportive, People reports.

Justin Timberlake is making headlines this week after he was arrested in Sag Harbor, New York.

Timberlake, who's currently on a world tour to support his latest album, "Everything I Thought It Was," was apprehended shortly after midnight on June 18. He was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated and released without bail.

Timberlake's eyes were "bloodshot and glassy" when he was pulled over, according to the police report filed by Officer Michael Arkinson, with a "strong odor" of alcohol on his breath.

Officer Arkinson quoted Timberlake as saying that he had "one martini" before getting behind the wheel.

The pop star's lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., said he is ready to "vigorously" defend Timberlake in a statement shared with TMZ.

Indeed, Burke Jr. isn't the only one — in spite of the memes and jokes made at Timberlake's expense.

Hamptons resident Billy Joel — who spoke to reporters while dining at the American Hotel, where Timberlake was reportedly partying before his arrest — advised caution while reacting to the news.

"Judge not lest ye be judged," Joel told PIX11 News on Tuesday.

Gayle King also struck a lenient tone while addressing the incident on Wednesday's episode of "CBS Mornings."

"Justin Timberlake is a really, really great guy," she said, per People. "Listen, this is clearly a mistake. I bet nobody knows it more than he."

"He's not an irresponsible person, he's not reckless, he's not careless," she continued.

King also noted that Timberlake's actions are "alleged," though she added there is "never any excuse" for drunken driving.

Timberlake's wife, Jessica Biel, has not commented publicly. However, a source told People that while she's "not happy," Biel is prepared to support Timberlake and "will always be by his side."

"She doesn't like any attention on the family, especially not negative," the source said, describing the arrest as a "distraction" for Biel.

"He's a great dad and husband," they added of Timberlake, who shares two sons with Biel, named Silas and Phineas.

Timberlake's court date is set for July 26, the same day he's due to perform the second of two shows at Madison Square Garden. He is also scheduled to perform two shows in Chicago later this week. Timberlake has not yet announced any changes to his tour.

A representative for Timberlake did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Global luxury goods sales growth will slow in 2024, per a new Bain & Company report. 
• The report cited China's economic uncertainties and rising outbound tourism as key factors.
• "Luxury shaming" and price hikes without innovation could also contribute to sluggish sales growth.

The spike in the global sales of luxury goods could be coming to an end in 2024, and "luxury shaming" could be in part to blame.

A report published on June 18 by Bain & Company forecast that worldwide sales of personal luxury goods — which include high-end clothing, shoes, handbags, and beauty products — would grow at the slowest rate since 2020, when sales plummeted due to pandemic-related factors.

If Bain's forecast pans out, it could be due in part to a slowdown in China. The report cited two factors in particular that are holding back sales in the Chinese market: "the revival of outbound tourism" and "weakening local demand caused by rising economic uncertainties."

As pandemic conditions have eased, more wealthy Chinese citizens have begun traveling internationally — allocating money to travel that they might otherwise have spent on luxury goods.

Additionally, economic uncertainty in China has brought about a phenomenon called "luxury shame" or "luxury shaming." With some Chinese citizens experiencing financial challenges, some higher-income people have been hesitant to flaunt their wealth with luxury goods. Bain said this phenomenon played out in the US during the Great Recession — and has impacted sales in China.

Bain partner Claudia D'Arpizio told The Associated Press that in addition to macroeconomic factors, luxury goods companies may also be to blame for the slowdown in sales.

She said some luxury goods companies have raised prices but not justified these hikes with sufficient innovation, leaving some consumers "upset and puzzled."

• Traffic deaths have spiked in certain places around the world in recent years. 
• Austria is trying to do something about it, recently passing a law to deter 'super speeders.'
• European countries tend to have stricter traffic rules and, as a result, safer roads.

The Austrian government is cracking down on "super speeders" on its roads in an effort to boost safety.

A new law allows the government to confiscate — and even sell — the vehicles of those who drive 60 kilometers per hour (about 37 mph) or more over the speed limit.

Like the US, Austria has seen a recent uptick in road deaths. But roads are far safer in the European nation than in the US, which has far deadlier roads than other rich countries. The US has seen road deaths spike recently — in 2021, traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high, and in 2023, deaths were 13.6% higher than in 2019.

Austria's director general of transportation, Vera Hofbauer, told Bloomberg News that the new law hasn't been on the books for long enough to measure its impact, but it's already being felt. Just hours after the law went into effect, the government confiscated the car of a super speeder, she said.

Austria experienced 4.1 road deaths for every 100,000 people in 2022. Hofbauer argued that "drastic measures" must be taken to stop drivers who "are using their car like a weapon."

Austrian officials aren't alone in cracking down on dangerous driving. A slew of European countries have implemented the world's strictest road safety regulations. In several countries, speeding tickets are calculated based on the driver's income, so the wealthier the driver is, the steeper the fine.

In Switzerland, speeding tickets have been calculated based on both income and wealth since 2007, when voters decided to crack down on wealthy speeders. One driver was fined more than $1 million in 2010 for driving his Mercedes sports car about 180 mph in a 75 mph zone.

Last year in Finland, a multimillionaire was slapped with a €121,000 ticket — about $130,000 — for going about 18 miles per hour above the speed limit in a 50 kph (31 mph) zone.

The European Union is also cracking down. In 2022, the European Commission mandated that beginning in 2024, all new cars have technology that alerts drivers when they exceed the speed limit. The measure is predicted to cut road deaths by 20%.

The laws seem to be working: countries that have imposed the strictest road rules also have the safest roads. Switzerland has about 2.6 road deaths per 100,000 people each year — among the lowest in the world — and its fatalities have fallen faster than the EU average over the last decade. By comparison, the US road death rate was 12.8 per 100,000 in 2022.

"Sometimes you have to try measures which sound strange at first, and which create new legal questions that you must answer," Hofbauer told Bloomberg. "But I think we should try everything we can to reduce crashes."

• Congress is debating reforms to the military draft system.
• A Senate proposal — if it became law — would force some women to register for the draft. 
• US military recruitment fell short by 41,000 recruits in 2023, reflecting ongoing challenges.

The US military is having a harder time getting Americans to join the armed forces, so Congress is weighing some options — including making women eligible for the draft.

On June 14, the House of Representatives passed an annual defense policy bill that contained a bipartisan proposal to expand the maximum age of the draft — which the US last used in 1973 to bring men into the armed forces during the Vietnam War era — from 25 to 26. Currently, most US men between the ages of 18 and 25 are required to register with the Selective Service.

The same day, the Senate approved a bill that — if it became law— would force women to register for the draft.

The House and Senate proposals have little chance of becoming law, in part because some Republicans aren't on board, The New York Times reported. But as the US military continues to face recruitment challenges — and geopolitical risks persist across the globe — Congress could continue to weigh reforms to the US draft system, in addition to other changes that could boost the number of active service members.

In 2023, the US military collectively fell short of its recruiting goals by roughly 41,000 recruits. A Pew Research poll conducted in January found that 43% of US adults between the ages of 18 and 29 had a positive view of the US military.

The congressional debate about whether women should be included in the draft dates back to at least 2020, when a group of military experts recommended that Congress enact this measure. The debate comes as the US military has taken some steps over the past decade to improve equality in the armed forces. As of 2016, women have been able to hold every military position.

Not everyone in Congress is on board with the proposal to include women in the draft.

"We need to get reality back in check here," Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, said on Fox News. "There shouldn't be women in the draft. They shouldn't be forced to serve if they don't want to."

• The venture capital industry could face a big contraction in the near future.
• Thats's according to Scott Stanford, cofounder and partner at ACME Capital, an early-stage VC firm.
• Half of today's VC firms will shutter in the next decade, he told BI.

It's no secret: Venture capitalists are hurting.

A slowdown in VC deal activity, which started in late 2022, has continued into the first quarter of this year, accounting and advisory firm EisnerAmper wrote in an analysis published on June 16.

You've heard this story before: inflation, interest rate uncertainty, and low M&A volume are having chilling effects on the investing environment.

Venture capital has cyclical fluctuations, but Scott Stanford, a cofounder and partner at ACME Capital, an early-stage VC firm, thinks something more meaningful is underway.

"It's not crazy to think half the VC firms that were actively investing in the last decade will be sidelined and eventually collapse," he wrote in an email to BI.

The first wave will die off in the next five years. Ten years from now, the damage will be evident, he said.

Some simple back-of-the-napkin math paints a grim picture.

In a chart compiled by Stanford and shared with BI, by 1990, there were 300 VC firms overseeing $17 billion in assets. Over the last two decades, those numbers went through the roof. Now, there are 3,000 VC firms overseeing $1.2 trillion.

By contrast, the increase in exits is modest at best. By 1990, VC-backed IPOs totaled $12.7 billion. By 2021, that increased to $60.1 billion. And it's a similar story with VC-backed M&A deals.

The venture industry got ahead of itself, in other words: The proliferation of firms and the money they're managing is not supported by the financial value they're creating.

"As the venture capital industry matured over the past several decades, euphoric momentum investors, not technologists, drove the creation of funds and the deployment of capital, blind to the nuances and challenges of timing innovation cycles," Stanford and ACME cofounder Hany Nada told investors in a recent letter shared with BI.

"Just as investors mistime specific investments or funds, the venture industry as a whole got as much as a decade or two ahead of reality, leading to an overcrowded, overcapitalized, and overvalued market," they added.

VC backers have other options

Other factors will serve to cull the herd in VC, per Stanford.

Limited partners (LPs), or investors who put money into venture firms, have other options thanks to higher interest rates, Stanford added. Low-risk investments like investing in Treasury bonds, for one example, are commanding a decent return.

Tech, meanwhile, is "no longer an elusive sprite commanding irrational M&A premiums or IPO exuberance," Stanford said.

Once upon a time, a startup claiming they were a tech company somewhere in their pitch deck might command a billion-dollar valuation. That era is long gone.

Finally, AI isn't necessarily the next panacea, Stanford said.

The jury is out on whether it spawns the next generation of unicorns — when leaders like OpenAI are providing the tech openly, and anyone can use it to spin up decent products.

All told, in this environment, investors without deep expertise, powerful networks, or mega-funds to deploy will be hard-pressed to raise money and build enduring franchises, Stanford said.

"A VC without capital is like a tennis player without a racquet," he said. "They can give interviews and make headlines but they aren't invited on the court."

VCs will have to take risks again

Stanford believes today's challenges will give way to a new — or, rather, an old — era of VC investing.

Tons of startups that went to market in the last handful of years had a similar strategy: Backed with millions in funding, they launched an app that was slightly better than someone else's.

In the past, you could get away with making social features, apps, and incrementally better software in this fashion, Stanford said.

Nowadays, incumbents can do all that themselves.

So, investors that survive the contraction will have to back companies that are actually inventing things and therefore come with a sizable risk profile.

When those companies get it right, they generate outsized returns. When they get it wrong, they go to zero.

Maybe these VCs can be part of what Stanford describes as a renaissance of technology, "where systems work for us versus us working for them," he and Nada wrote to LPs.

• Katy Perry worked with Dr. Luke to create her new album, a label source confirmed to Rolling Stone.
• Dr. Luke coproduced many of Perry's early hits, but they haven't collaborated since 2013.
• In 2014, Kesha sued Dr. Luke for sexual abuse. They reached a settlement last year.

Katy Perry has teamed up with Dr. Luke to create her forthcoming album, reconnecting with the embattled pop producer for the first time in a decade.

Perry launched her new era on Monday by announcing the album's lead single, "Woman's World." After sharing a snippet on TikTok, rumored song credits began circulating on social media, which listed Dr. Luke as a producer.

Rolling Stone confirmed his reunion with Perry on Wednesday, citing a source from Perry's label, Capitol Records.

"Katy knew exactly the album she wanted to make and put together the team to make it happen," the source said. "And that includes previous collaborators including Luke, Stargate, Max Martin, and Sarah Hudson."

Dr. Luke, born Lukasz Gottwald, coproduced many of Perry's early hits, including diamond-certified tracks like "California Gurls," "Roar," and "Dark Horse."

However, Perry seemed to sever ties with Gottwald after she released "Prism," her third album with Capitol, in 2013.

The following year, Perry's former friend and fellow pop star Kesha filed a lawsuit against Gottwald, her former mentor, alleging a decadelong period of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Kesha said Gottwald had drugged her, raped her, and subjected her to psychological torment while she was signed to his label, Kemosabe Records, causing her to starve herself. "I tried to and almost killed myself in the process," she told The New York Times.

Gottwald denied all of Kesha's claims and countersued for defamation.

Over the course of their lengthy court battle, Perry's name was dragged into the mix. Texts between Kesha and Lady Gaga revealed that Kesha had called Perry "mean" and believed that she, too, had been "raped by the same man," meaning Gottwald. Perry testified that this wasn't true. She also said she felt "pressured" to support Kesha amid the legal battle, but preferred to stay out of it.

Meanwhile, Perry released her fourth album with Capitol, "Witness," in 2017 and her fifth, "Smile," in 2020. Neither included production credits from Gottwald.

In 2021, unsealed court records showed that Gottwald asked to testify about losing business opportunities as a result of Kesha's accusations — namely, high-profile pop collaborations worth about $46 million in lost income. He estimated that $11.65 million of that sum would've come from working with Perry specifically.

Kesha and Gottwald reached an undisclosed settlement last year, though Kesha has never walked back her allegations.

In fact, Kesha seemed to react to Perry's announcement on Monday, posting a message on X that simply reads, "lol."

But Perry's rollout of "Woman's World" has been met with far more explicit backlash from fans.

Despite Gottwald's lost revenue estimates, he has found steady work with pop stars since Kesha's allegations went public, producing multiple top-10 hits like Doja Cat's "Say So," Latto's "Big Energy," and Nicki Minaj's "Super Freaky Girl." Still, many of Perry's followers were shocked to learn of their collaboration, flooding social media with disappointed and angry messages.

A representative for Perry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Miami-Dade County is the most competitive rental market in the US.
• Suburban Chicago is in second place followed by North New Jersey. 
• Nationwide, housing shortages and rent increases continue to challenge renters.

With much city real estate increasingly out of reach and many millennials finally settling down, the suburbs are in high demand. And nowhere is that more evident than in Miami-Dade County in Florida, which is the most competitive rental market in the country, according to a new report from RentCafe.

The report ranked 137 rental markets in the US, taking into account the market's rental vacancy rate, the number of days a home spent on the market, the number of potential tenants competing for each home, the percentage of tenants who renewed their leases, and the portion of new home constructions finished this year.

Suburban Chicago and North New Jersey came in second and third, respectively. A few other spots in the Midwest, including Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Milwaukee, were also among the top five most competitive rental markets.

Rising competition in rental markets has been shaped in recent years by severe housing shortages — the US is short about 4.5 million homes, according to one recent estimate. Meanwhile, high interest rates over the last couple of years have kept homeownership out of reach for many would-be buyers and deterred many baby boomers from downsizing.

Things tend to be worse for renters, whose median net worth is one-fortieth the median homeowner's. While rent growth cooled last year, rents for single-family homes across the country are about 36% higher than they were pre-pandemic and rents in multifamily buildings are up about 23%.

The pandemic-induced rise of remote work helped accelerate certain moving trends, including millennials leaving cities for the suburbs and people from all over the country flocking to the Sun Belt, including Florida.

Competition spikes

In Miami, a surge in new residents has pushed housing costs ever higher. An average of 19 prospective tenants are competing for each rental, while 96.5% of rentals are occupied.

However, Chicago is catching up. Younger people looking to move into Chicago's suburbs are, on average, among 13 prospective tenants competing for each rental home. Just over 95% of rental units are occupied, as 68.7% of tenants opt to renew their leases and the region has constructed virtually no new apartments recently, RentCafe found.

In suburban Chicago and northern New Jersey, renters and homebuyers are increasingly being drawn in by new amenities — from restaurants to walkable neighborhoods — that appeal to a younger crowd.

With housing costs stubbornly high, many renters can't afford homeownership and are staying put in their apartments, the report found. Across the country, 62.4% of people living in apartments renewed their leases this spring. In Miami-Dade County, 73.6% of renters renewed their leases.

The report concluded that rental markets across the US are "moderately competitive," with a national Rental Competitiveness Index of 73.4 out of 100. This is in part because construction of both single-family homes and multi-family buildings has surged in recent years. That surge in supply helped slow rent growth in many markets.

• Two climate protesters were arrested for spraying orange powder paint on Stonehenge.
• The protesters were part of Just Stop Oil, a group demanding that the UK phase out fossil fuels.
• English Heritage, which manages Stonehenge, criticized the vandalism but said the site is open.

Two climate protesters were arrested on Wednesday after they sprayed orange powder paint on Stonehenge, the prehistoric landmark in Wiltshire, England.

It was the latest action by Just Stop Oil, which is part of a network of civil disobedience groups that have defaced famous artwork, disrupted high-profile events, and protested outside at politicians' homes to call attention to the climate crisis. Just Stop Oil is demanding that the incoming UK government commit to ending the extraction and burning of oil, gas, and coal by 2030.

Just Stop Oil said the protesters were Niamh Lynch, 21, a student at Oxford University, and Rajan Naidu, 73, from Birmingham.

"The orange cornflour we used to create an eye-catching spectacle will soon wash away with the rain, but the urgent need for effective government action to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of the climate and ecological crisis will not," Lynch said in a statement.

The Wiltshire Police said they arrested two people on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument, but did not disclose names.

English Heritage, the charity that manages hundreds of historic places, and UK politicians criticized Just Stop Oil's actions on Wednesday.

"Obviously, this is extremely upsetting and our curators are investigating the extent of the damage," English Heritage posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "More updates to follow but the site remains open."

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told news outlets, including the Guardian, that defacing Stonehenge was a "disgraceful act of vandalism to one of the UK's and the world's oldest and most important monuments."

• When my husband and I sold our law firm, we retired early; I was 54 years old.
• At first, I was worried I'd be bored and didn't want to spend every minute with my husband.
• Eighteen months into retirement, I'm feeling spiritually lighter and focusing on self-growth. 

I retired at 54 when I sold the law firm I owned with my husband.

I had poured nine years of my life into that law firm. The business was hard and relentless work, but I loved it. Before all that, my adult life focused on building my career as a lawyer and raising a family. Now, our youngest child of four was finishing school. The child-raising was done, and my business was sold. Suddenly, it felt like I had nothing left.

With the rest of our lives before us, my husband and I wondered who we were without our kids or careers.

I worried about what my husband and I would do with our new free time

I was lost. For the first time in my life, I had no purpose or direction. I had oodles of time to do whatever I wanted, but I didn't know what that was.

My husband and I agreed that we should sell the business; we did not agree on early retirement.

"We are too young to retire," I told him repeatedly. "We still have so much to offer."

"Don't be crazy. We should grab the opportunity of a new, slower life with both hands," he often answered.

Our marriage has been a long and happy one. I wasn't concerned about spending a lot of time with my husband, but I was concerned about spending all our time together. Leading up to retirement, I wondered: What would we do, what would we talk about, and would we get sick of each other?

The questions boggled my mind during the first few weeks of early retirement as I started cleaning out the cupboards — begrudgingly. The task was so boring and mind-numbing that I worried the task was a representation of the rest of my life.

Out of force of habit, I compulsively checked my emails countless times a day only to be continually disappointed when I saw shopping emails imploring me to buy the latest whatever.

Eventually, I noticed a change in myself

Day by day, week by week, I felt myself growing lighter. The furrow between my eyes faded. I didn't realize how often I had screwed my face in concentration trying to solve the latest problem. I didn't realize the extent of the weight I had been carrying on my shoulders — the weight of a team of 35 people and thousands of clients. The weight of the bushfire that I imagined was out there flickering, always threatening to flare up and damage the business, finally dissipated.

I started filling my days with things other than work and the 100+ emails that needed answering every day.

I met up with neglected friends and kept surprising myself as I told them I would fit in with their week. I no longer had to see when I could squeeze in a coffee date. I no longer had to take my laptop with me to the hairdresser or send emails while I was grocery shopping.

On our usual morning walk with our fur baby Golden Retrievers, my husband and I were able to slow down. The walks became longer and less hurried. We often finished with a leisurely coffee at a café.

Plus, we started traveling more and for longer periods.

Sure, I'm spending more time with my husband, but our time together now is more meaningful. And it's giving me a reason to find the new me.

I'm trying to write a new chapter for myself

As I explored who I wanted to become outside my career and outside my marriage, I decided I should start to write. I've signed up for a few online writing courses. I have started experimenting with flash fiction, short stories, memoirs, poetry, and travel writing.

Eighteen months into retirement, I can see that this period of my life is a gift. I can stop rushing, and I can start nourishing myself with things that I want to do. I have the luxury of time and the freedom to do what I want when I want. I can be present and not preoccupied.

Early retirement has gifted me the opportunity, quite literally, to write another chapter of my life — and this chapter is all about me.