Is your employer building your dreamhouse? Beware

Plus: Doctors ditch BMI, stock market momentum and more. Bloomberg This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a precursor to an important substance called Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - The US builds [new homes]( for sale. - Scientists form [new methods]( to scale. - Europe fears [old allies]( may fail. - The stock market needs [a caution cocktail](. Come on Barbie, Let's Go House Party Listen, I’m not saying that US housing starts [unexpectedly surged]( in May — the most since 2016 — because that’s the same month Warner Bros. released [Greta Gerwig’s]([ Barbie trailer](, but I’m not not saying that: Conor Sen says that “[demand for new construction is up](, in part due to the shortage of existing homes for sale.” I just wonder how many homebuilders are submitting blueprints that eerily resemble [Barbie’s dreamhouse](, 2D decals and all: A fuchsia fantasy. Source: Architectural Digest But as in [Barbie Land](, things are not as [dreamy]( as they seem. Although demand for housing appears unrelenting in the US, mortgage rates — which have doubled in two and a half years — are still [crimping affordability]( for would-be homeowners, as is the threat of an inflation comeback, Conor writes. The median cost of a single-family house has [increased]( by about $100,000 over the same period, and people’s monthly payments have gone from 14.7% of their income to 26% — a percentage that surely stings in the face of [equity losses](: Meanwhile in the UK, the average [two-year fixed-rate home loan]( jumped above 6% today. Columnist Matthew Brooker arguably chose [the worst possible time to try and buy a house](: “After several weeks of house-hunting in London, the sense that the market was weaker than the data suggested was tangible,” he writes, noting the dour real estate brokers who had nothing positive to say about the [property market](. The houses are “not exactly flying off the shelves,” one agent told him at a viewing a few weeks ago. A cost-of-living crisis is contributing to the slowdown, and lenders that are [yanking mortgage deals]( to account for [inflation]( are making matters that much worse: All of these housing headaches have [some desperate individuals turning to their employers for help](, Erin Lowry writes. Normally, when you hear about cushy [workplace benefits](, it’s stuff like [unlimited PTO](, health care and maybe a round of [egg retrieval](, if you’re lucky. An entire home is probably not the first perk that comes to mind. But Big Tech is staging a revival of the “[company towns](” and “utopias” of yore that provide employees with a suitable place to live at a major markdown. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has [Willow Village]( in Menlo Park, California, which offers housing at below-market rates. And Elon Musk is proposing a similar development outside of Austin called [Snailbrook]( , which — and don’t quote me on this — would seemingly be the first-ever town name inspired by a character from [SpongeBob Squarepants](. At first, you might be thinking: Free(ish) housing! Your work wife next door to your real wife!! Is this the Barbie utopia I’ve been waiting for?! But one must consider that your employer miiight be skimping on your base salary in order to offer such a generous benefit. Then there’s location to consider, which might not be desirable if it weren’t for the discount. Plus, “a company community means you will be surrounded by co-workers,” Erin writes. While I adore my colleagues — especially the ones who happen to be reading this newsletter (wink, wink) — I’d rather not have to knock on their front door on a Sunday morning to “borrow” [an egg](. Aside from awkward encounters with colleagues wearing pajamas, there are real risks — like literally getting evicted if you quit your job, Erin explains. In other words: Read the fine print, people. Nobody — including Barbie — should have to sell their soul in order to have [a roof]( over their head. Bonus Housing Reading: Our [houses need a power boost](— but not the sort you can use to charge your phone. Instead, the entire building should be treated as a heat battery. — David Fickling The Care and Keeping of You I Was [Today Years Old]( when I found out that Body Mass Index — or BMI (someone’s weight divided by the square of their height) — was devised not by a doctor, but by some Belgian astronomer nearly 200 years ago. His name? [Adolphe Quetelet](, of course: His mathematical formula, based on the bodies of White, 19th-century European men, has long been used [to stigmatize and even misdiagnose]( large swaths of the global population, Lisa Jarvis writes. Luckily, the American Medical Association is now waking up to the fact that dear Adolphe — who never tasted The Cheesecake Factory’s [Cinnamon Roll Pancakes]( in all their [caloric glory]( — should no longer be the sole arbiter of A Healthy Body in These United States. But “now comes the tricky part: Shifting the way doctors and society define a healthy size — and ensuring people trying to lose weight can get the interventions they need,” Lisa explains. In an attempt to stay healthy, some people turn to the pharmacy aisle’s confusing array of dietary supplements, which F.D. Flam says are chronically under-regulated because they don’t have to go through clinical trials. “Products often have labels that imply they prevent disease — supporting heart health, immune function or brain health,” she writes, noting that America’s $55 billion market is expected to double by 2032. Kourtney Kardashian, who made news over the weekend with [her clever pregnancy announcement](, is a pioneer in the supplement space with her line Lemme, which sells a variety of [gummies and tinctures]( that claim to help you “live a fuller, more balanced life.” The thing is, the insides of everyone’s guts are different. And so, they are going to react differently to different types of supplements. Lemme’s [“Focus” gummy]( contains citicoline — “a naturally occurring nutrient found in the brain” that’s “a precursor to an important substance called phosphatidylcholine that is critical for healthy brain function.” But some peoples’ microbiomes can break [phosphatidylcholine]( into a nasty byproduct. “You could be trying to amp up your brain health and you could instead cause potential damage to your heart,” Nathan Price, who is chief scientific officer at Thorne HealthTech told F.D. Just like BMI, most supplements seem to be more of an art than a science. Read [the whole thing](. Crash Course "If the power goes out and there isn't a backup, then your food won’t last as long ... you don't want to eat chicken that's been thawed a few times." Paul Burkhardt Bloomberg News energy reporter Tim O’Brien looks into South Africa's unreliable power grid on the latest episode of [Crash Course](, “[What Happens When the Lights Go Out?](" Telltale Charts America’s economic contributions to Ukraine are an astounding seven times greater than those of the next-largest nation state — the UK. Despite the monetary support, “many Europeans have the unpleasant feeling of being [caught between two superpowers in a new cold war](. They know China is partly to blame for this. But they see the US as equally culpable,” Niall Ferguson writes. That bifurcation is causing America’s allies to question all sorts of things, including its very leadership. The stock market is really [doing the most]( these days, but [it might be doing too much](, Aaron Brown argues. In the past, the S&P 500's Relative Strength Index — or RSI — hasn’t created bubbles and crashes, but it has fueled them with mathematics, nonetheless. Whether or not the momentum measurement will do the same this time around is up for debate, but a bit of caution is warranted. Further Reading The Carlos Ghosn show has [a bizarre sequel](. — Chris Bryant [Sony’s merger in India]( was doomed from the start. — Andy Mukherjee If we can fix I-95 [this quickly](, why can’t other construction projects go faster? — Matthew Yglesias Putin may have [lost Russia’s fight to own borscht](, but that’s not the only food battle brewing abroad. — Howard Chua-Eoan Alibaba’s spinoffs offer neither profit nor growth. The latest [surprise leadership shuffle]( is much needed. — Tim Culpan What makes the climate change shark swim? Water. Investors, [consider yourself warned](.— Lara Williams Italy isn’t the [economic basket case]( you thought it was. — Lionel Laurent ICYMI [Hunter Biden]( wants to avoid prison. How many people does it take to send [a government text](? The [decline of play time]( is harming our kids. Adults under 65 should be [tested for anxiety](. The missing submarine was steered by [a $30 Logitech gamepad](. Kickers new [SpongeBob popsicle]( will haunt you. [Live-in dog nannies]( must be discreet. (h/t Andrea Felsted) Area baseball player is [very, very bored](. The [MLB grass]( is greener with new rules. [Zoey 102]( is a thing, and there’s a [trailer](. Notes: Please send unhaunted popsicles and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](