Food and gas are the new rent

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a $400 gas receipt of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda Food and fuel only go up. R [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a $400 gas receipt of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Food and fuel [only go up](. - Refugees [need a place to stay](. - [AMC]( goes for the gold. - The world retreats from [China](. Food Is the New Rent Early on in the pandemic, a lot of New Yorkers got major deals on apartments. Now the landlords are striking back. Even though [rats are popping out of toilets](, [hedgehogs are escaping]( through holes in walls and my own ceiling rains sewage on me (really!), the rent is still going up by percentages your paycheck can only dream about. Add a war to the mix, and you’ve got the recipe for rampant inflation, or even [stagflation, the word suddenly on everybody’s lips](, Mark Gilbert notes. If your current landlord were to, say, bump the rent on your apartment by 48% (which is [a thing that happens](), you’d have no choice but to start hunting for a new apartment. Then you’d have to deal with real estate agents, many of whom behave as if they’re on the pilot episode of some cringey reality TV show. “This place is actually sick,” one will tell you, gesturing to some stranger’s unmade twin bed that takes up half the floor. You don’t really want to trust this man who probably spent 18 minutes meticulously applying carrot oil balm to his hair this morning, but you have no choice but to sign the lease. Anyway, as much fun as it is to complain about rent, it’s actually being outdone lately by other life expenses: food and fuel. Andrea Felsted writes [rising prices for these commodities could lead consumers to get thrifty]( with their grocery shopping. Ironically, I’m writing this on [World Consumer Rights Day](, which feels oddly fitting. As prices rise, some people might head to Kroger, which rewards shoppers with discounts on gas. Others may skip the car altogether, choosing to carry their groceries on foot. Soon enough, TikTokers will probably start TikToking about $27 cucumbers and $400 gas receipts instead of their [$4,950 apartments](. In times like these, it’s natural to wonder where all the profits go. Could farmers get any benefit from higher food prices, for example? Adam Minter [spoke with a farmer named Rob Tate]( and found out the answer to that question is most certainly no. Tate is paying as much as 242% more in 2022 than in 2021 for the key nutrients he needs to grow corn. “If the Ukrainian situation drags on, the greater the impact on next year's crop,” he told Adam. Meanwhile in Ukraine, farmers are casually trucking around loads of rockets that were abandoned by the Russian Army. “Their farmer's market must be incredible,” [Rob Cromwell tweeted](. But is it worth the gasoline to drive there? Bonus Grain Reading:  [Egypt’s wheat supply is in dire straits](. China can easily help, but will it? — David Fickling Refuge for Refugees Fortunately, many of us live in places a bit roomier than NYC’s sunless shoeboxes. At a time when more than [three million Ukrainians have uprooted their lives]( and abandoned their homes, Therese Raphael [sums up what many such fortunate people are feeling right now](: “Never before has a spare bedroom stared back like this. Some of us have a child or two out of the home (whether temporarily or permanently) or are lucky enough to have a guest bedroom. Whatever the reason, there is a bed no one is sleeping in. Do we take in a Ukrainian refugee family, for how long and on what basis?” Earlier today, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said the war in Ukraine is creating a [child refugee nearly every second](. That means by the time you get to the bottom of this newsletter, 100 more children will be displaced. [The astounding numbers can make us feel helpless](. In a [truly riveting Twitter Spaces conversation](, Scott Duke Kominers spoke to Tymofiy Mylovanov, President of the Kyiv School of Economics, who has been gathering money and supplies for Ukrainians in need. Some of his students got stuck in Russian-controlled territory on the war’s first day, including a sixteen-year-old freshman in his bachelors program who was trapped in a basement with her family for two weeks without access to water. “That’s all you need to know about what we’re facing here,” Tymofiy said. “She is just a kid.” If you only listen to one thing today, [make it this](. Bonus Ukraine Reading: - Putin is spending [billions of dollars per day on this war]( due to his military’s incompetence. — James Stavridis - [If and when peace comes to Ukraine](, it would be good to own European stocks. — John Authers Weird Finance A struggling movie-theater operator is not the kind of company you’d normally expect to buy a gold mine. But AMC apparently doesn’t care about normal. That company and other such meme investments were “[the great financial market story of 2021](,” Matt Levine writes, “but 2022 has marked a grim return to normal.” AMC is proudly bucking that trend by making a play to be the Warren Buffett of memes. And maybe “return to normal” is up for debate. A-Rod is betting big on Mojo, a company that aims to be a “stock market’’ for athletes. Aaron Brown writes this is evidence of a [“quiet revolution” happening in the world of finance]( as the line between gambling and investing fades for Millennials and Gen Zers. Maybe weird is the new normal. Bonus Crypto Bro Reading:  [Crypto is basically boring now](. Don’t fight it, embrace it. — Tyler Cowen Telltale China Charts It’s March of 2022 and more than [45 million people in China]( are in some kind of lockdown, in a cruel sort of reenactment of March 2020. Just like two years ago, tech factories are being shuttered and stocks are plunging, writes Tim Culpan. But unlike two years ago with Wuhan, [the rest of the world has learned how to work and live without China](. Shuli Ren writes we’re in the middle of “[a seismic shift in the ownership of Chinese stocks](.” Americans are afraid of more regulatory crackdowns, but Chinese investors are buying the dip. The result could be a China more cloistered from the rest of the world. Further Reading It’s risky, but President Joe Biden should try to drive a wedge between [Venezuela and Russia](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Don’t get it twisted: [Singapore still wants smart, rich expats](. — Rachel Rosenthal [Want to reduce the gender pay gap by 40%?]( I’ve got two words for you: pay transparency. —  Ruchika Tulshyan [Amazon may have had a hidden agenda]( when doing its stock split. — Jonathan Levin Two years out, we already know [the 2024 election is going to be all about Donald Trump](. — Jonathan Bernstein ICYMI [Anna Delvey got deported]( to Germany. How do you do, fellow kids [who all want to move to Seattle](? [People are talking about David Leonhardt]( and his newsletter. Please don’t replace me with another white man, [says white man leaving the White House](. Hollywood vs. real life: [There are two men for every woman](. Kickers If you like pretend-shopping for million-dollar mansions on Zillow, [this one’s for you](. � Russian oligarch’s [$700 million superyacht]( wants to reunite with its $600 million superyacht cousin. What should one do when they are [accidentally ordained as a crypto bro](? Notes:  Please send unsullied superyachts and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com and get much, much more](. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.  Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. 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