Homebuilder cartel or not, this housing market is awful

Let us count the ways. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a private-label ice cream flavor of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Housing]( is an absolute [mess](. - [Generic snacks](? Shoppers say “yes.” - [Social media]( is in distress. - Knee-jerk [reactions]( don’t impress. Crib Cartel You wanna know what keeps me up at night? This $16 million cliffside mansion that appears to be moments away from careening into the Pacific Ocean, that’s what: Photographer: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times The guy who lives in it — an 82-year-old radiologist — [refuses]( to leave. What’s his end game? To literally die on this hill? While morbid, that’s not an entirely preposterous thing to say, considering [heavy rains]( caused part of the cliff to crumble like a cookie just a few weeks back. Although officials say there is “no imminent threat” to the home, Southern California is [bracing]( for more rain over the weekend. I fear what comes next. Throughout the US, [climate-related housing horrors]( are playing out in real time. And homebuilders aren’t helping the situation, [writes]( Mark Gongloff: “In some fast-growing parts of the US, lobbyists are frustrating efforts to make new homes more efficient and compatible with clean technology, making it that much harder for the rest of us to avoid the worst effects of a heating planet.” In the US, housing accounts for [19% of total carbon emissions](. To curb that figure, we’ll need to make homes more efficient. Sadly, homebuilders are sabotaging those efforts: “Tapping popular anger about housing costs, they argue the new standards would raise construction expenses by $20,000 per house, making them less affordable for working-class people,” Mark writes. But that argument is deeply flawed for two reasons. First, that wildly exaggerated estimate comes from a survey of just eight homebuilders. And second, hiring a contractor to make your home more efficient down the road would cost many multiples of that. “Builders are risking a miserable future for their customers,” he laments. And it’s not just a US problem: Matthew Brooker [says]( British builders are “delivering too few homes at prices that are too high and at quality levels that are often questionable.” Just yesterday, Britain’s top antitrust enforcer opened up a cartel investigation into eight developers. “The investigation centers on concerns the companies may have exchanged competitively sensitive information, which could be influencing the build-out of sites and the prices of new homes,” [according]( to Bloomberg News. Matthew says only 33% of British homebuyers would consider buying a new build because the market is such a colossal disaster. UK politicians have typically tried to fix the housing market by focusing on setting young people on the track toward mortgage-free home ownership. But Merryn Somerset Webb [thinks]( there’s another cohort who could solve the housing shortage: senior citizens. “Ninety percent of the over 65s live in houses that on ILCUK’s criteria are too big for them (more than two spare bedrooms). Get them moving and that’s a lot of bedrooms available for generally larger under-65 households,” she writes. If only we could apply that logic to the 82-year-old radiologist currently sitting in his clifftop mansion. United Snacks of America There are few corners of the universe that are innovating at the same rate as the snack aisle. If you go your local grocery store or spend a second watching a “snack haul” on TikTok, you’ll see [evidence]( of this revolution. Whether it’s a bag of [pickle-flavored jelly beans](, [plant-based churro puffs]( or [hot wing hard seltzer](, companies are experimenting with [every flavor combination]( imaginable. The packaging of these treats is usually [hardwired]( to appeal to the Gen Z brain. [Digital-first brands]( employ squiggly typography and pops of color that practically beg you to try whatever corn-popped cashew-dusted chili-crisp creation they dreamt up this time. The snacks often have a mission to be “healthy,” not just for your gut, but for the planet. Yet what’s really remarkable is that a lot of these snacks taste bad. And we know that! Nobody buys a new snack expecting it to be amazing. You buy it because it’s a fun little treat to indulge in; an experience to offset the perpetual feeling that society is slowly descending into a pit of hell. For years, grocery stores have watched these newfangled products [fly off the shelves](. And they’re not always cheap. You’re paying $6.43 for [a prebiotic soda]( at Walmart! Which is why we’re seeing more and more retailers try and [recreate the magic]( of these buzzy brands with their private label offerings. From Walgreens’ viral peel-and-chew [gummy mangoes]( to Ikea’s raspberry-flavored [heart biscuits](, retailers are cashing in on the snack-ification of society. And it appears to be working: What’s the difference between private-label “dupes” and generic products, you ask? There isn’t one. And that’s the secret. “As the less pejorative term for ‘generic brands,’ it shows how far we are from the bland and tasteless knockoffs that defined generics when they were [first introduced]( in the 1970s,” Leticia Miranda [writes](. And private-label offerings have gotten a lot better in recent years (I say this as someone who is addicted to Good & Gather [dill pickle cashews](). The newfound cultural cachet of white-label champions like Trader Joe’s and Target arrives at a time when snack food veterans are already weak. Although Smucker’s beat third-quarter profit estimates today, its business increasingly depends on [Uncrustables]( — a sandwich it developed in 1995. General Mills is facing backlash after a study found a [chemical in Cheerios]( may cause fertility issues. And Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick recently said Americans on a budget should just [eat cereal for dinner](. You can imagine [how well]( that went over. Even Unilever, which owns beloved ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s, got caught flat-footed when it saw “disappointing” ice cream sales last year. Leticia says it’s no coincidence that more than 400 new private-label ice cream flavors were introduced in the four years before 2022. “New product launches have increased across alcoholic drinks by 15%, confectionery and snacks by 9.7%, and pet care by 2.8% last year,” she writes. Soon enough, I bet private labels will take over the yassified [Gen Z brands](, too. This Snaxshot [meme]( about Costco’s private label Kirkland really says it all: Telltale Charts While Mark Zuckerberg was busy [chomping]( away at his Japanese Big Mac, John Authers was [questioning]( the future of Meta in his newsletter. The maker of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram is all-powerful at this point, he allows: “But what right does the government have to tell them what they can or cannot publish?” The question is on everyone’s mind as the Supreme Court considers two monumental free-speech and social media cases. At issue is whether conservative states can force platforms to allow all content — even if it’s racist, sexist and anti-Semitic. “Although it’s easy to forget it, the basic idea behind freedom of speech is not that you should always be able to say anything you want, anytime, to anyone,” Noah Feldman [writes](. Instead, it’s that the government can’t be the one telling you what to say or not say. “Allowing Texas and Florida to force the platforms to carry speech their executives think is harmful opens the door to full-on governmental content regulation,” he warns. Senator Elizabeth Warren was quick to [denounce]( Capital One’s deal with Discover on the grounds that it is “dangerous and will harm working people.” But one look at the data and you’ll see that Discover isn’t some big-time banking goliath. It has less than 5% of US purchase volume! And before the deal, it risked getting even weaker. On balance, Bloomberg’s editorial board [says]( the deal is “likely to inject much-needed competition into the card market. Dismissing it out of hand serves only politics — not consumers or companies.”  Further Reading Warren Buffett’s [annual letter]( should be required reading for CEOs. — Beth Kowitt Shein would undergo a lot of [scrutiny]( if it IPO’d in Europe. — Andrea Felsted Threatening to [close the government]( is just feckless posturing. — Karl Smith The EU’s [carbon-offset market]( just got some much-needed new rules. — Lara Williams Sony dodged a bullet when it [nixed]( this $10 billion Indian merger. — Tim Culpan This JPMorgan strategist is [defying]( a market rally with his bearish 2024 call. — Jonathan Levin Disney’s big-budget [adaptation ofÂ]([Shogun]( has lessons for the West. — Gearoid Reidy Make no mistake: A [bet on Occidental]( is a bet on buoyant oil prices and demand. — Liam Denning ICYMI Chi-town’s [summer]( arrived early. Apple [ended]( its decade-long foray into EVs. Taylor Swift’s dad [may have punched]( a photographer. The police [got uninvited]( from Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade. Food-safety officials failed to catch [lead-tainted applesauce](. Kickers Costco is Hong Kong’s [hottest new store](. The Brazilian [flea toad]( is small but mighty. Want to feel bad? Ask TikTok [how old you look](. Heinz launched Godfather-inspired [pasta sauce](. Buying a home [near Nvidia’s HQ]( is “nearly impossible.” An underwhelming [Willy Wonka event]( looked like a meth lab. Notes: Please send gummy mangoes and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Threads](, [TikTok](, [Twitter](, [Instagram]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. 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](. 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