*Tapping the mic* Hello?
The good, the bad, and the ugly from this week
Good morning, or “gm” as we used to playfully say before our portfolios were down 75% YTD. Welcome to the first post of this newsletter.
I’m Chris Bakke, a Twitterer, and the CEO of Laskie - the best hiring platform for tech talent. I enjoy writing about hiring, careers, investing, finance, web5, and tech. Original and bold topics that no other founders in their 30s would dare cover.
As we enter our 824th day of unprecedented times, let’s dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly from this week, but we’ll flip it so we don’t end the newsletter on a sad note. That’s right: a newsletter designed like a corporate shit sandwich.
The ugly:
No one has any money, evidently. 61% of US consumers live paycheck to paycheck as of this April.
Rich people also have no money, somehow. 36% of people making over $250,000 in the US live paycheck to paycheck.
Over 40,000 tech workers have been laid off this quarter alone, and the pace is accelerating rapidly:
The bad:
Mortgage rates are above 2008 levels. The typical US buyer with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage now has a monthly payment of $2,514, which is up from $1,692 a year ago. I got a B+ in AP Economics, and I can tell you with some certainty that this will not end well.
1.7 million people currently have $11.8 billion in assets (wait, no…$11.1 billion, wait no…$10.7 billion - that was a terrible crypto joke) frozen in Celsius, which promised 18.6%+ APYs. I am shocked. I’m sure that many of those users have moved onto other reputable platforms that can give them a mere 17% on their money, risk-free, guaranteed. **web3 wink**
The good:
Someone’s still making money in this market. Jim Clark, one of the billionaire founders of Netscape bought a house in March of 2021 for $94 million. He’s under contract to sell it for $175 million. $81 million profit in 15 months. That means that together, Jim Clark and I have made about $73 million in profits this year.
There’s a great story on the podcast My First Million this week (or as the hosts now call it, ‘My Last Million’) of two entrepreneurs who have created three separate conference + events businesses that are worth over $100 million in the last few years. Love these stories. Pickaxes pay.
Plenty of companies are still hiring. Last quarter, the unemployment rate was 3.9%. Tech roles (and all jobs) have effectively flatlined this year, but we’re still seeing decent demand and constrained supply across most industries. Here’s the % change in job postings on Indeed since February 2020:
Okay, that’s all.
Thanks for reading, and give me a shout on Twitter if you liked this first newsletter.
If you have criticisms of this newsletter, write a lengthy email to chris@laskie.com and then hit Delete instead of Send. We’re ending on a positive note, I said.
See you next week (if I can still afford to pay my internet provider).
—
This newsletter is sponsored by Laskie.com - the best way to hire full-time engineers, salespeople, marketers, and more.
They pay me $0 for this sponsorship and our marketing department demands that I write this newsletter every week. Please send help.
Anyway, get started for free as an employer, or create a profile as a candidate.