Doing their not-own thing: “generation rent”

Global Shift to Private Renting:

• The term "Generation Rent" (coined by Halifax in 2011) now describes millions of millennials stuck in the private rental sector across the UK, US, New Zealand, and social democracies like Sweden.
• In the UK, the private renting share of the population has doubled from 10% in the early 2000s to 20% today, representing an increase of approximately 6 million renters; roughly half of these renters are over age 35.
• In the US (2022 data), over 50% of the private rented sector spends more than 30% of gross income on rent, creating spillover effects on labor markets where cities like Stockholm report one in five businesses struggle to fill jobs due to high housing costs.
• Contributing factors include difficult job markets for millennials, rapid house price inflation, and tighter mortgage rules following the 2008 financial crash.

Efficacy of Rent Control Policies:

• Rent controls are politically popular but economically criticized as "zombie policies" by economists like Milton Friedman, who warned they lead to inefficient space allocation and halted new construction.
• Stockholm, Sweden, exemplifies the failure of strict rent controls, where tenants' unions negotiate rents up to 50% below market rates, creating waiting lists of 10 to 20 years and distorting the housing market so residents refuse to move or upsize.
• First-generation controls (freezes) are deemed most destructive; second-generation controls (capping annual increases) still discourage movement and landlord investment.
• Success in cities like Vienna depends on simultaneous permissive planning laws that allow continuous apartment construction, not just rent controls.
• Auckland, New Zealand, achieved a housing boom by upzoning 75% of its land for dense development in 2016, adding 44,000 homes in seven years and keeping rents approximately 30% below projected levels.

US-TikTok National Security Dispute:

• The Biden administration has issued an ultimatum for TikTok (owned by Chinese firm ByteDance) to sell its US operations to a non-Chinese entity by January or face a shutdown, citing national security risks and fears of data theft and propaganda.
• TikTok and eight content creators are suing the government, arguing forced divestiture is commercially impossible and violates the First Amendment rights of 170 million US users.
• TikTok claims the administration ignored a negotiated national security agreement and "Project Texas" (a data-walling collaboration with Oracle), which was designed to isolate American user data from ByteDance.
• The legislation includes criteria for future restrictions on any social media platform with over 1 million monthly US users and 20% ownership by entities in "adversary countries" (China, Iran, North Korea, Russia).
• Critics warn the law grants excessive presidential discretion, potentially targeting other sectors like video games, and may encourage global fragmentation of the internet as other nations cite US actions to ban foreign apps.
• Despite the legal battle, the Biden campaign continues to use TikTok for outreach, while former President Trump has also joined the platform, gaining over 2 million followers in his first day compared to Biden's 300,000.

Resurgence of the Album Format:

• Major artists including Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, and Taylor Swift are increasingly prioritizing the cohesive album format over single releases, often announcing albums without pre-release singles.
• This shift reverses the 21st-century trend where singles dominated; currently, singles account for 65% of consumption for rock albums and 85% for pop albums.
• Artists cite financial benefits from simultaneous releases, which allow for dual revenue streams (vinyl sales and full album streams) and greater chart dominance compared to sporadic single releases.
• The renewed focus on albums by female pop stars challenges a historical bias established in the 1960s that viewed singles as "frivolous" and "girly" while positioning albums as "serious" artistic statements.