In today’s scouting report, I start out on the light side of things by making fun of Google’s AI which seems completely unwilling to produce a picture with a white guy in it. But it’s not that funny when we see it as the embedding of divisive, racial views into the very technology that people work with daily. The repetition of the theme “white men are not welcome” is a form of subliminal marketing that creates things like some people feeling 100% A-OK with Black Lives Matter actions but 0% OK with Kyle Rittenhouse’s actions.
Or Mark Cuban admitting that he hires according to skin tone and gender, not talent or capability. How does behaving in a racist way help correct racism? They never say…
However, the real meat of today’s Scouting Report is the growing damage concentrated in the commercial real estate sector which is itself concentrated further in the small(er) and regional banks. Remember to try and act surprised when these many smaller banks fail and are scooped up by the mega banks…and, oh, would it surprise you to learn that commercial RE loans are the only asset specifically excluded from the Great Taking (UCC Article 8) mechanisms?
Almost like this specific set-up was planned long ago…