Plus, the cost of living is contributing to Japan’s population crisis, the doomsday clock moves closer to midnight, and more. Email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser ([link removed]) .
[link removed]
[link removed]
The One-Minute Meeting

Home rental costs now average above 30% of household income, a 20-year high in America. Some people say they would buy a home but they are priced out by the current mortgage rates. They keep renting and that demand drives up prices. Three states topped the 30% rent-burdened threshold: Massachusetts (32.9%), Florida (32.6%) and New York (31.2%). Over the past three years, Nevada (+4.9%), Florida (+4.8%), Alabama (+4.2%), South Carolina (+4.2%), Arizona (+4.1%) and New Mexico (4.0%) experienced their highest increase in average rent burdening.

Japan provides a hint of one effect of high housing costs. Japanese officials said this week that the country will count fewer than 800,000 births for the first time in more than a century. Families say the high cost of housing and the lack of affordable day care are key reasons for the low birthrate. It is an especially big issue because Japan has one of the longest life-expectancy rates in the world.

Scientists who keep the doomsday clock say the world is closer than ever to midnight thanks in part to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, North Korea’s nuclear weapons testing, the threat of bio-attacks, cybersecurity threats and the climate crisis. I wish I could end this paragraph with good news, but the scientists didn’t offer any.

As Valentine’s Day draws near, romantic shoppers are considering whether they might buy traditional diamonds or lab-grown diamonds that cost a lot less and sparkle just as bright. The lab-grown diamond people say theirs is a $14 billion business in the United States. It is expected to grow 8% a year for the next seven years.
READ THE MORNING MEETING ([link removed])

ADVERTISE ([link removed]) // DONATE ([link removed]) // LEARN ([link removed]) // JOBS ([link removed])
Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here. ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed] [link removed] [link removed] mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feedback%20for%20Poynter
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
© All rights reserved Poynter Institute 2023
801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
If you don't want to receive email updates from Poynter, we understand.
You can change your subscription preferences ([link removed]) or unsubscribe from all Poynter emails ([link removed]) .