Financial Mindset

New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows a surprising phenomenon: The average age of first-time homebuyers getting a mortgage has barely budged over the past two decades, remaining in the mid-30s. At first glance, that doesn’t seem to make sense. You’d think that given the steep rise in home prices versus incomes, it’s primarily the young who delay purchases as they get stuck in rentals waiting for paychecks, and banking savings. The evidence says not so. Expanding on the New York Fed’s findings, a new study from the American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center concludes that the same problem is haunting would-be buyers at all age levels. “When purchasing power declines, fewer people buy homes at 28—but also fewer purchase at 38 or 48,” writes the author, the Housing Center’s co-director Ed Pinto. “The result is a broad-based drop in home ownership.” The AEI also points to a disturbing trend that amounts to the de-democratization of American housing. “The less-rich a...

The new leadership of the AI power startup Fermi is feuding with its fired CEO and top shareholder over a potential sale of the company. The struggling Texas company, which went public last year at a nearly $20 billion market cap, aspires to build the largest data center campus in the world, called Project Matador, in the Texas Panhandle, but it has struggled to nail down anchor tenants. Fermi is now advising against recommendations from its fired co-founder and CEO to sell the company. The company’s market cap has plunged to less than $3.2 billion as of April 21. The former CEO, Toby Neugebauer, who’s the top Fermi shareholder, said he was fired “without cause” last week and now supports an immediate process to sell the company in order to make “money for all shareholders.” Neugebauer said his family and former executive allies own about 40% of Fermi shares. Neugebauer and former chief financial officer Miles Everson, who abruptly resigned April 20, remain Fermi board members. Als...

Southeast Asia’s motorists are increasingly feeling the pinch as the Iran energy crisis extends into its eighth week. Fuel prices have soared across the region, and drivers are waiting in long lines outside petrol stations in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, hoping to fill their tanks. While oil prices have slipped from their highs just a few weeks ago—West Texas Intermediate crude is currently hovering around $90 per barrel—they are still far above pre-war levels. The closed Strait of Hormuz, as well as export bans of refined fuel products from countries like China and South Korea, have cut off petrol supplies in Asia.  But across the region, drivers may have found an answer: electric vehicles. Chinese EV giant BYD received the most orders of any automaker at the Bangkok Auto Show in early April, beating Toyota for the first time . Among the top ten brands, seven were Chinese.  Energy security concerns are shaping EV demand, says Samuel Chng, a research assistant ...

Iran’s military declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again on Saturday after a head-spinning 24 hours of mixed messages from the regime that underscored friction between competing power centers. Early Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strait was “completely” open to ships that followed Iran’s established route. President Donald Trump also announced Iran had reopened the narrow waterway, sparking a massive stock market rally. But the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soon asserted it remained in firm control of the strait. Iran’s Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, also took the unusual step of criticizing Araghchi’s declaration that the strait was fully open, calling it “a complete lack of tact in information dissemination.” Fars, another IRGC-linked news agency, piled on Araghchi, saying that “following the unexpected tweet from the foreign minister about the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian society has been plunged into an atmosphere of...

President Donald Trump  said the U.S. forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to get around a naval blockade near the  Strait of Hormuz  on Sunday, the first such interception since the blockade of Iranian ports began last week. Trump on social media said the ship was warned by a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer in the Gulf of Oman to stop, but it did not. He said the Navy “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom” and that U.S. Marines had custody of the vessel, named Touska, and were “seeing what’s on board!” There was no immediate Iran comment. The news threw into question Trump’s earlier announcement that U.S. negotiators would head to Pakistan on Monday for another round of talks with Iran. That had raised hopes of extending  a fragile ceasefire  set to expire by Wednesday, even as Washington and Tehran remain in a standoff over the  Strait of Hormuz . Iran has not confirmed it would attend. While it...

In the December 10, 2001 issue of Fortune , Warren Buffett wrote a landmark 7-page article that introduced a crucial market metric that became renowned as the “Buffett Indicator.” The Great Man adapted the piece from a speech he’d given that July at the annual Allen & Co. bash in Sun Valley, privately delivered to the audience mainly comprising top CEOs. It was the legendary Fortune writer Carol Loomis who persuaded Buffett to adapt and extend his remarks for the article. Carol was my mentor during my early career at the magazine; I had the honor of working as her research assistant (no coasting allowed!) and she displayed the noblesse oblige to edit a couple of my pieces. Even then, Carol had a great friend in Buffett. For many years, she famously edited the Berkshire Hathaway annual letter. I’m sure she’d admit that his guidance helped hone her forensic skills to the point where Carol could dissect the true financial performance of big enterprises from ITT to Hewlett-Packard...

President Donald Trump on Saturday directed his administration to speed up reviews of certain psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine,  which recently has been embraced  by  combat veterans  and conservative lawmakers despite having serious safety risks. Ibogaine and other psychedelics remain banned under the federal government’s most restrictive category for illegal, high-risk drugs. But the administration is taking steps to ease restrictions and spur research on using the drugs for medical purposes, including conditions like severe depression. “Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life,” Trump said as he signed an  executive order on the drugs . The Republican president said his directive will help “dramatically accelerate” access to potential treatments. “If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it’s going to have a tremendous impact,” he s...