Home prices in the U.S. have climbed at a record pace during the pandemic. The median home price reached over $363,000 in June 2021, a 23.4% increase from 2020. Many of the houses are being sold above their asking price, often entirely in cash with bidding wars becoming the new norm to weed out the competition. So is America currently in another housing bubble and what are the signs that can help investors predict an oncoming crash?
Tag Archives: America
Political Analysis: China’s Attack On Tech, America Functions, German Voting
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: China’s attack on tech, function in Washington (10:09), and our prediction model for Germany’s election (17:15)
1950’s: A ‘Moral Panic’ That Targeted Comic Books
Comic books have been a staple of American pop culture for the better part of 90 years. The origin story of comics as we know them, however, is much more complicated. In the 1950s, a moral panic swept across the country — one in which parents and children burned comic books by the bushel in public gatherings — and led to the near destruction of the comic book industry. Comics were big business even by the 1940s. They reached millions of readers each week. And the superheroes created then have now become billion-dollar franchises, showcased in blockbuster films and massive conventions such as Comic-Con. Events in 1954, however, almost changed that. Laws were passed. Careers were ruined. And comics fell under a strict censorship regime that lasted for decades to come.
Review: California’s High-Speed Railway Failure
It promised to transform how Californians travel but is now seen as a “bullet train to nowhere.” This is why America’s west coast megaproject has been far from high-speed.
Politics: Untied Kingdom, Political CEO’s, Myanmar’s Failing State (Podcast)
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, from United Kingdom to Untied Kingdom, corporations and democracy in America (09:00) and Myanmar: Asia’s next failed state (17:10).
Morning News Podcast: Myanmar Coup Protests, Cuba Castro Era Fades
Protests against February’s military coup are only growing, even as the army becomes more murderous. The economy is paralysed. What can be done to put the country back together?
In Cuba, the end of the Castro-family era is nigh; a new leader inherits a cratered economy and an ambitious vaccine-development effort. And some surprising road-fatality statistics from America.
Architecture & Culture: Harvard Design Magazine ‘American Paradigm’ (2021)
The latest issue of Harvard Design Magazine reveals full redesign and new editorial model as it assesses the establishment, and reconsideration, of the paradigm of “America”.

Harvard Design Magazine 48: America marks a turning point for the magazine as the first issue under new editorial director Julie Cirelli, featuring Mark Lee and Florencia Rodriguez as guest editors. This issue also debuts a full redesign by Alexis Mark, the Copenhagen-based graphic design firm. Publishing this month, the issue gathers contributions from leading figures across the fields of architecture, design, urban planning, fashion, art, and governance, including Maurice Cox, Shaun Donovan, Michèle Lamy, Sylvia Lavin, and Marc Norman. Join Lee, Rodriguez, and Norman, alongside contributors Paul Andersen, Neeraj Bhatia, and Maite Borjabad Lòpez-Pastor, for a virtual launch event next Tuesday, March 23, 7:30pm ET.
Harvard Design Magazine 48: America reflects on the theme and definition of “America” through lenses of cultural production, racial justice, and architectural and design practice. In the 20th century, a paradigm of America characterized by progress, openness, and democracy was perpetuated—but with an ominous underbelly of exclusion, racism, and inequity left unexamined. While viewpoints on America’s story and history differ, if not reject one other, what is widely shared is a sense of 2020 as a breaking point—or, “a consciousness of an imminent existential threshold,” as write Lee and Rodriguez.
Views: ‘Aerial America – Peak Americana’ (Video)
Eager for an escape? Here’s one you can take without leaving your couch! These Peak Americana clips are a taste of what’s to come when Aerial America starts streaming on #ParamountPlus on March 4th.
Analysis: How America Can Build & Run A 100% Clean Electric Grid (Video)
The U.S. electric grid is outdated. Designed for a world that runs on fossil fuels, our grid needs some major tech upgrades in order to transition to a more distributed, all-renewable system. That means smart, internet connected hardware working in tandem with advanced data analytics software to ensure that supply and demand are balanced, even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
Analysis: The Shrinking U.S. Population (CNBC Video)
The US is facing an aging population, falling birth rate and economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic. These issues will have huge implications on the size of the workforce and the consumer base. Watch the video to find out why America could be confronting an underpopulation problem and what business leaders and policymakers can do about it.