WFH Forever — The long-rumored Great Reopening has begun. Airports, cruises, theme parks, sporting events, concerts, and other would-be super-spreader events are coming back nearly in full, but one notorious congregation point remains unmissably absent from the list. No one wants to go back to work. Who would’ve thought?
Office buildings appear to be the epitome of “first-to-suffer, last-to-recover” when it comes to returning to pre-pandemic “normalcy.” According to building-access card swipe data compiled by Kastle Systems, an average of 33% of the workforce returned to the office in the first week of February. That figure is up from January lows of 23% and down from December highs of 41%, meaning employees are really just playing ping-pong based on the virus-instilled fear levels of the day.
Meanwhile, movie theatres are packed by comparison, with Kastle reporting that movie theatre occupancy is around 58% of pre-pandemic levels. Airports are hovering around 80% of total February 2020 flyers, while NBA games are chilling right on the cusp of full recovery, seeing about 93% of pre-pandemic attendance.
Restaurants, on the other hand, are not chilling. Despite an average of almost 75% of diners returning, many restaurants, particularly those in busy central business districts, are still getting destroyed. Without the buzz of the typical urban office-worker lifestyle, the midday lunch or the quick stop for coffee these businesses rely on is no more.
That hurts these businesses, but now the toll is starting to really hurt cities as well. Business closures or lower revenue means less tax revenue for the city itself, leading many officials to make desperate pleas, like when NY Governor Kathy Hochul told business leaders to “Give them a bonus to burn the Zoom app and come on back to work.”
Damn, I never would’ve guessed that the place where people have to fake smile and kiss ass for 8 hours a day would be the last place we want to go back to. That’s gonna have to be a fat bonus, Governor.
BlockFined — Out of all the financial crimes you could possibly commit, the one thing you definitely don’t want to do is lie to customers. Particularly, in the SEC’s eyes, you do NOT want to lie about risks associated with your investment product offerings. BlockFi, inevitably, missed this lesson.
The digital currency exchange and lender was hit with a $100mn fine from the SEC and 32 states over its practices related to its lending products. The exchange, for roughly three years, has been offering 9% interest on customers’ crypto deposits, while the average savings account’s interest rate is much less than 1%. Regulators finally woke up from their collective mushroom trip and did some work to outline the baby steps of soon-to-come regulation around crypto lending.
$100mn sounds like a horrendous hit to the company, but it might actually be a blessing in the long run. See, prior to this ruling, the SEC had said as much about digital currencies as Pete Davidson has said about Kanye (basically nothing).
As part of this decision, the SEC has clarified that BlockFi must register these lending vehicles with the Commission as they are considered investment securities via the Howey Test and must not take any more deposits into these accounts until fully registered.
So BlockFi lost $100mn, but it gained the title of “first U.S. regulated crypto lending product,” a massively beneficial first-mover advantage.
Now, as for more regulations of this asset class, maybe ask again in 2028. It’s gonna be a while.
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