Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Elder care ‘train wreck’

In Florida, the toll of climate change is colliding with the challenge of caring for an aging society. Drawn to the state’s warm weather and low taxes, baby boomers have been piling into the retirement haven for years, leaving it with one of the most elderly populations in the US. With Florida being threatened by more powerful hurricanes, commercial-property insurance costs last year surged by almost five times the national rate. Care providers contend that’s effectively slapped a new tax on an industry already grappling with labor shortages and rising supply costs. The result? More and more nursing homes are closing down while others are missing debt payments. At the same time, the costs for senior care at all levels— already exorbitant—are rising still more. This dynamic threatens to make elder care unaffordable to an ever-growing number of people. “We are headed into a train wreck,” one operator said. —Natasha Solo-Lyons  

JPMorgan is immersing every new banking employee in artificial-intelligence training, preparing them for a technology Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has likened to the printing press and steam engine. “This year, everyone coming in here will have prompt engineering training to get them ready for the AI of the future,” said Mary Erdoes, who runs the bank’s asset- and wealth-management unit.

One of Wall Street’s most prominent bears has just turned positive about the outlook for US stocks. Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson says he now sees the S&P 500 rising 2% by June 2025, a major about-turn from his view that the benchmark will tumble 15% by December. The strategist—whose bearish 2023 outlook failed to materialize as markets kept rallying—finally gave in and boosted his target for the S&P 500 to 5,400 points from 4,500. That catapults his forecast from among the lowest on Wall Street to one projecting a fresh record for the index.

Mike Wilson Photographer: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said Monday he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on war crimes charges. The charges relate to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the Israeli military response in Gaza that followed. A panel of ICC judges will consider whether or not to accept the application.

The prosecution has rested in the first criminal trial of a former president in US history. New York’s case against Donald Trump could see closing arguments begin next week. The defense meanwhile has launched its effort to discredit one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen has testified about Trump payoffs allegedly aimed at keeping embarrassing allegations from the voting public in the run-up to the 2016 election. 

Ivan Boesky, who reached the pinnacle of fame and fortune as a high-flying Wall Street arbitrageur in the 1980s only to be exposed in the insider-trading scandal that defined the era, has died. He was 87. The New York Times reported his death. Boesky’s case set off shock waves not only on Wall Street but across the US, confirming some investors’ worst fears about how capital markets worked. He was believed to have been the model for the character of Gordon Gekko, the rapacious villain played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film Wall Street. In one of the more famous film utterances about American capitalism, Gekko echoed Boesky’s own assessment when he declared “greed is good.”

Ivan Boesky leaves court after pleading guilty in 1987. Photographer: Keith Torrie/New York Daily News/Getty Images

Pandemic-era college kids are facing a job market that doesn’t want them. Tainted by the pandemic, this outgoing class of seniors had anything but a typical college experience. Most are ready to enter the “real world” yet are being forced to adjust expectations. Even the best of students are facing an endless web of job applications, ambiguous timelines and countless rejections. On the surface, the US job market is strong. But getting on a path to a well-paid job in finance, consulting and technology is more difficult, with greater competition for fewer entry-level positions.

In just a few years, Hims & Hers Health reached almost $1 billion in sales by making it easy to buy cheap, generic versions of popular drugs such as Viagra. Now it’s using that playbook to jump into the hottest part of health-care: weight-loss shots. And in typical fashion, a big part of the company’s pitch is the discount. Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, costs roughly $1,350 for a month of injections without insurance, and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound is similarly priced. Hims said it’s offering a treatment with the same active ingredient as Wegovy for $199 a month. That undercuts Big Pharma by as much as 85%.

Hims & Hers compounded semaglutide. Source: Hims & Hers

• Speedier Wall Street trades are putting global finance on edge.
• Fed’s Jefferson says April inflation data is “encouraging.”
• Millennium covets Citadel-size commodities gains—just not the risk.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Musk loses autonomy in race for Tesla robotaxis.
• Bloomberg Opinion: The cooling in apartment rents won’t last long.
• Eli Manning wants his own team as private equity targets the NFL.
• The $367,000 Ferrari 296 GTS Hybrid joins the great car hall of fame.

It used to be possible to get a decent hotel room in the UK for £150 ($190), but these days you’re lucky to find a closet-size room on Airbnb for under £300. And it’s not just in London, where the hotel scene has been making headlines for normalizing four-figure nightly rates. In truth, escaping to the countryside isn’t necessarily much cheaper; a night this June at the celebrated Four Seasons in Hampshire starts at about £900. But there’s now a new guard of affordable luxury properties offering excellent value by any standard, from beachside breaks to chic cityside options. Here’s where to find them. 

A stylish bedroom at the Store in Oxford  Source: The Store

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