Dan Cathy Replaces Hollywood:

Have you ever been to Hollywood?

For first-timers, it can be something of a shock. And no, I don’t mean because of all the glitz, glamor, and celebrities, but because of the filth, crime, rampant homelessness, danger, open prostitution, and overall dinginess of the place. As someone who lived in Los Angeles for many years, whenever people ask me what to see in Hollywood, I always have to tell them to manage their expectations.

Hollywood is kind of gross.

Perhaps that is why we so often see a low view of humanity coming out of our culture. Films, TV shows, and even music are far too often deeply cynical and nihilistic. While there are certainly multiple reasons for this, could it be that part of the reason our creative elite puts out lowbrow, despairing content is because the place in which many of these creators live is, well, the way that it is?

Billionaire Chick-fil-A chairman Dan Cathy seems to think so. But he frames it in positive terms rather than throwing shade at Hollywood. He focuses on what he can do.

And turns out, there’s quite a lot you can do with connections, vision, a motivated team, Georgia tax incentives, and billions of dollars.

Dan’s solution? He calls it “Place-Making.” What if the creatives who make our popular culture lived and worked in a place that encouraged rather than suppressed their humanity? What would be the effect of a place that values good ol’ decency, sunshine, trees, and walking? What could be accomplished by good working conditions, safe streets, a place to raise a family and rub elbows with potential collaborators?

What if we treated these people, from the studio executives to the key grip holding up the boom on set, like they were made in the image of God?

That is Dan Cathy’s vision. That is Trilith Studios and the brand new neighboring town of Trilith…

Film and TV productions spent $4.4 billion in Georgia’s fiscal year 2022 (and another $4.1 billion in fiscal year 2023), while California saw just $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2022. California has been redoubling efforts to preserve the film and TV industry in its state, which still boasts nearly half of motion picture jobs, though the manner of calculating that figure may require scrutiny…

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reports that the Fed is wary of cutting interest rates too soon, and dashing investors hope that March will see the beginning of steady decreases. The stock market responded with a modest dip in spite of the fact that Powell’s remarks seem consistent with earlier signals given by the Fed during the last part of 2023. Many experts have been warning for some time now that markets are overly optimistic, as evident by the high cost of equity in the US and the rapid increase in valuations…

Here’s a headline you probably never thought you’d see: Non-Alcoholic Beer Sales Skyrocket. In fact, the category has experienced nearly 3x growth since only 2019, according to an in-depth piece by the Wall Street Journal. Regular beer (alcoholic) had quite possibly its worst year in a generation, shipping less than 200 million barrels in 2023. It’s true that the Bud Light boycott may have had some influence – Bud Light sales volume was down 28% in December when compared to 2022 – but it is insufficient to explain the total trend: People are drinking less, and specifically, they are drinking less beer…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Q: What is the purpose of the epistle 1 Peter?

Answer at the bottom

TIPS & TRICKS

3 Things to Keep In Mind Before Getting into Real Estate Investing

“Real estate is never worth nothing.”

“If you want to make some real money, buy real estate.”

“Being wealthy and successful means passive income, and passive income means real estate.”

If you’re like me, you’ve heard the above axioms your entire life. When time, money, and opportunity all converge, buying real estate is the obvious choice. In the Big Sort during COVID, in which millions of Americans moved across state lines, enterprising investors bought and flipped homes left and right, often at tremendous gains as home values went up and up (and as California and New York money flooded into Texas, Idaho, and Tennessee). Developers were building like crazy. Rent was rising. It was a party you didn’t want to miss, financially speaking.

With so much success, investors have been increasingly attracted to the prospect of getting in the game, but home values haven’t really gone back down, interest rates and inflation present a very real obstacle to home ownership, and the supply may not be meeting the needs of the demand.

All of that to say, it can feel odd to question the wisdom of buying property when you’d like to invest, but it may be a good time to do some very serious digging before buying real estate. As Larry McDonald recently said, the housing market is “a slow-moving train wreck” and predicted up to $700B in coming defaults.

Some will still do well with real estate, even now. But here are three things to consider before you buy:…

• Amid a sinking local stock market, Chinese money increasingly moves to digital assets.

• $1 and free timeshares are increasingly common, as inflation and rising fees increasingly make owning a timeshare a financial burden.

• Universal Music Group to remove its catalog from TikTok, meaning no more Hillson, Tauryn Wells, TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, et al in TikTok Videos

• Due to a lack of exploration, experts predict an oil supply shortage by the end of 2025.

• Joel Belz, founder of WORLD magazine, a Christian news service, passed away at 82.

• Pew Research has released a new study this week on American's views of keystone institutions: "From Businesses and Banks to Colleges and Churches.".