👋 Gonesler - Had to do it. SEC top dog, Gary Gensler, will step down from his role when Trump takes office. Remember when it was all the rage to sue crypto firms? That was Gensler & Co. hard at work. Although he had countless other achievements, Gensler leaving office paves the way for more regulatory freedom in the crypto space.

🤖 Nvidia Reports - Considered a barometer for the AI industry temperament, Nvidia reported sales growth of 94%...Sheesh. In unrelated matters, I might start rocking a leather jacket (context: CEO of Nvidia famously rocks a leather jacket).

🥪 Danny Devito Sandwich Rich - Blackstone, the private equity behemoth and rival to my Alma mater, has taken a controlling stake in the New Jersey sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s, valuing the company at $8 billion. Given that private equity often takes on debt to acquire companies and cuts costs (sometimes at the expense of quality), I preemptively had a Jersey Mike’s sub on Thursday, so I can tell my kids, 'It wasn’t like it used to be.'"

✈️ High level, what the heck is this?

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed by President-Elect Trump to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a recently published Op-Ed, the two heads posted they will target 3 kinds of reform for the government: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings. They will be leveraging in place legislation to increase efficiency, rather than creating any new laws (that genuinely sounds like a pretty efficient way of handling it). They have set an end goal of July 4, 2026 (250th birthday of America) to eliminate the need for DOGE’s existence.

✅ Why might it work?

Elon Musk is famously a “first-principles” thinker. This means he is an expert in cutting out the extraneous at his several companies. He once tweeted, “Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation. Anyone can break laws created by people, but I have yet to see anyone break the laws of physics.” This is a perfect example of first-principles thinking in which you break down complex problems into their most-basic parts and rebuild them from the ground up to solve. Given his determination, he might be one of the only ones who could pull this off.

❌ Why might it not work?

In the private sector, you can make decisions that are entirely radical and to the point, and as long as you have the money to weather the fall out from it failing, you can grow from the learnings. Business is all about rapid iteration and learning from failures. Some of the cost-cutting methods might be irreversible, and if they do not prove some initial successes right away, the public might be less forgiving than a shareholder.

🟰 Conclusion:

Love them or hate them, if it makes America better for everyone, I hope it all works out.

For the 1st time in more than 3 years, home sales increased on an annual basis. In October, home sales increased 2.9% from the previous year. The last time a year-over-year increase occurred was in July of 2021. From September to October, sales increased by 3.4%, well above what analysts had predicted (2.9%).

🏦 Why did this happen?

Mortgage rates. I probably don’t need to say more, but I will.  Following the September rate cut by the Fed of 50 bps or 0.50%, mortgage rates were at their lowest point in almost 2 years. When mortgage rates drop, payments to own a home lower and more people can afford homes. Over the past 2 years, people have sat on the sideline waiting for a more affordable home payment. When the rate reached its lowest point, more people “came into the game” and were able to purchase homes, so they did just that.

🧑 Why does it matter to me?

While a positive indicator of movement in the market, mortgage rates have increased since their September lows. The increase has been the result of the thinking “higher for longer”, meaning mortgage rates will not be drastically cut as people normalize the above 6% rates. While mortgage rates remain higher, the demand will remain steady (rather than increase or decrease drastically). Supply on the market remains low (golden handcuffs of the low mortgage rate environment are keeping people in place). Even in the stagnant environment, home prices have increased year-over-year in October by 4%.

🏡 What’s the outlook for mogul homes?

Prices will continue to increase, and people will rent for longer. This points to increased returns in Single Family Rental homes.

Check out our available properties here.

~300 patents, father of the Alternating Current (AC) power system (how we transmit electricity over long distances), father of the radio, and yet died penniless and alone in a hotel in 1943. Nikola Tesla is largely considered one of the most impactful inventors of all time.

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Austria-Hungary before he emigrated to the US. He was a physicist who, upon arriving in the U.S. in 1884, joined Thomas Edison’s workshop. Tesla quickly showed unbelievable ability when he improved Edison’s Direct Current (DC) electrical system. After Edison refused to pay Tesla a bonus for improving the system, Tesla quit and joined the Westinghouse Electric Company. Under Westinghouse, Tesla created the AC power system, sold the patents to Westinghouse, and created the “War of the Currents” between Westinghouse & Edison. The AC system won out and became the primary method for power transmission across our electrical grids today.

Tesla has countless other contributions, including but not limited to:

• 📻 Radio - Using Tesla coils, he realized he could transmit and receive powerful radio signals as far as 50 miles away.
• 🎛️ Remote control - In 1898, Tesla revealed a remote-controlled small boat in a demonstration at Madison Square Garden. It was so magical, some witnesses believed him to be using mind control.
• 🛜 Wireless communication - In 1899, Tesla conducted experiments in which he sent electrical signals over 25 miles, paving the way for wireless communication as we know it today.

While you may have heard of the car brand named after him, Nikola Tesla was ahead of his time, and we benefit every day from him.

• The Justice Department says Google should be forced to sell their Chrome Browser.
• Ken Griffin - billionaire Citadel CEO - is developing 4 acres alongside Biscayne Bay in Miami into the Citadel HQ & more, but a 22-story condo in the middle threatens to derail plans… or does it.
• Matt Gaetz is withdrawing his name from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general as prior allegations of sexual misconduct are brought into the spotlight.
• Amazon injected the Open AI rival, Anthropic, with an additional $4 billion.  
• A telling weekend for the movie industry as "Glicked" is underway; an attempt to rekindle the "Barbenheimer" craze, the Gladiator II and Wicked both launched this past weekend.

While originally from 1988, I recently read this book for the first time and was immersed from the opening line. Not a spoiler as it is revealed in the opening scenes…the book follows the travels of a boy, Santiago, who travels to Egypt in search of treasure. Upon arriving, he realizes the treasure was the journey along the way.

Incredibly cheesy I know, but again it is about the journey the book takes you on and the lessons it teaches along the way. Couldn’t recommend this one enough, finished it in 1 afternoon. It was that good. It makes me treasure the journey we are going on at mogul (I can hear your eye roll from my desk).

⭐ 4.85 / 5.0 in my book (no pun intended)

1. “Putting in the man hours to study the science of what you need.” → “Last week, we put liquid paper on a bee. And it…died.”
2. “Technique doesn't get you 18 medals and a Kristi Yamaguchi Lifetime Achievement Award.”
3. "Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.”
4. "It's a cosmic mix, the action of the 90s combined with the exploitation films of the 70s, but with modern touches. It's hyper violent, but it knows what it is. It's a little bit Tarantino, it's definitely a little bit Micheal Mann, it's kind of a cosmic gumbo. It almost moves to the beat of jazz."

Honeybees communicate the location of food sources by performing a "waggle dance" which directly corresponds to the direction and distance of the food source.

1. Step Brothers (John C. Reilly & Will Ferrell)
2. Blades of Glory (Will Ferrell)
3. Hitch (Will Smith)
4. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Detective Crashmore)