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Few statements communicate a sentiment more directly than the four words Jack Dorsey, the cofounder of Twitter, posted over the weekend on the platform he no longer controls: delete all IP law, was his simple message. delete all IP law— jack (@jack) April 11, 2025 That sentiment was backed by Elon Musk, the current owner of the platform Dorsey foundedsince renamed X. And given that big tech appears to be working hand in glove with the U.S. president, and Musk remains a close confidante of Donald Trump (despite a few tariff-shaped bumps in the road), their seemingly casual exchange deserves serious attention. A conversation that in another context, in another time, could have just been seen as casual conversation or irrelevant or interesting and part of the public debate, now inspires realistic regulation and fears about whether it might become policy in a week’s time, says Carissa Veliz, an AI ethicist at the University of Oxford. The fact that short, snappy tweets making seemingly outlandish claims about dismantling intellectual property rights need to be taken seriously, she adds, says a lot about how power has changed hands and power relations are working. Tech companies have already been lobbying hard for changes to copyright laws. In the U.K., the government recently consulted both the public and industry on proposed reforms to longstanding copyright protectionsreforms that would require copyright owners to opt out if they dont want their work to be legally used to train AI systems. Those in the creative industries have responded to this latest proposal with mockery and outrage. Delete IP law and you delete one of the main incentives to create at all, says Ed Newton-Rex, a former executive at Stability AI and now one of the most outspoken critics of big techs approach to copyright and AI. Newton-Rex calls the Musk-Dorsey exchange a ludicrous suggestion, from tech execs who are completely out of touch with working creators. It’s not surprising that two businessmen who would stand to gain a lot from the disappearance of IP law support that view, Veliz points out. But that doesnt make it a smart idea for the rest of usnor one supported by people outside the Musk-Dorsey tech bro axis. According to a YouGov survey, four in 10 Americans believe AI should be much more regulated than it currently is, with another three in 10 saying somewhat more regulation is needed. Nearly 80% of people worry that AI will diminish human creativity and drive. In the U.K., more than three in four people believe AI companies should pay royalties for using peoples work to train their modelsand public skepticism about AIs creative impact is widespread. Among the many worries that there are is that if we do away with IP law, we disincentivize creators from creating, says Veliz. That would make it more likely for AI to train on its own outputs, degrading the quality of its results over time. But beyond that, it risks dismantling more than a century of functioning copyright law just to support a business model thats already made plenty of money for its foundersrevealing where those same tech leaders think individual rights should stand.
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E-Commerce
The 2025 spring housing market is off to a slower than normal start for homebuilders. Thats what KB Homea giant homebuilder ranked No. 545 on the Fortune 1000told investors last month, echoing a similar sentiment shared by the even larger homebuilder Lennar earlier in the month. Demand at the start of this springs selling season was more muted than what we have seen historically, despite a healthy level of traffic in our communities,” wrote Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of KB Home, in their earnings report. “Demand at the start of this springs selling season was more muted than what we have seen historically, despite a healthy level of traffic in our communities. In mid-February, we took steps to reposition our communities to offer the most compelling value, and buyers responded favorably to these adjustments.” Below are six big takeaways from KB Homes earnings. 1. KB Home made bigger affordability adjustments in some Sun Belt markets heading into spring 2025 When and where needed, giant publicly-traded homebuilders are making affordability adjustments to maintain home sales pace. Sometimes that means bigger incentives like mortgage rate buydowns. And other times it means outright price cuts. Given market softness, KB Home had to do just that over the past quarter in some markets. We thoughtfully and selectively adjusted pricing as needed on a community by community basis to stimulate demand and achieve a higher selling pace,” KB Home Chief Operating Officer Rob McGibney told investors on the company’s recent earnings call. “While base price is the main motivator for our customers, we also provided mortgage related support to our buyers as needed.” McGibney added that: Consumers responded to these adjustments. We believe we have found the market. In Q1 2025, KB Home reported an average sales price of $500,700. For the full 2025 fiscal year, the homebuilder told investors it expected its average sales price to fall between $480,000 and $495,000. 2. KB Home is seeing the greatest weakness in Florida On KB Homes latest earnings call, COO McGibney pointed to Florida as the homebuilders softest-performing state in the first quarterprompting the company to cut net effective home prices to better align with local market conditions. In broad terms, Florida was our softest state in terms of sales demand in the first quarter, McGibney said. Because of that, we took the most pricing action there to find the market. He noted that most affordability adjustments or price cuts KB Home had to do range from $5,000 to $30,000 per home. However, it had to do more in Florida to find that market. Jacksonville, in particular, has been a focal point. McGibney said the metro is sitting at about seven months of housing supplyabove the historical normdriving the builder to make deeper price adjustments. One positive that we see in that [Jacksonville] market is it [inventory] is [now] getting absorbed. So youve got days on market actually down year-over-year despite that higher supply, but its likely because pricing has moved [down]. So were seeing that [Jacksonville] market react, McGibney said. McGibney added that the company has also seen weakness in its Orlando and Tampa communities. 3. Las Vegas is KB Homes strongest performer Our Las Vegas business is one of our largest and strongest performers, having consistently generated the highest gross margins and profitability in the company, CEO Mezger told investors. 4. Homebuilder profit margin compression continues During the pandemic housing boom, publicly-traded homebuilders achieved record profit margins as home prices soared and buyer demand ran red hot. Once the national housing demand boom fizzled out in the summer of 2022, many large homebuilders made affordability adjustments where and when needed to maintain their sales pace. That created margin compression. In recent quarters, margin compression has continued as homebuilders have turned again to affordability adjustments to move unsold completed inventory, which is on the rise. Excluding inventory related charges, our housing gross profit margin was 20.3%, above the midpoint of our guidance for Q1 2025,” Bill Hollinger, KB Home Chief Accounting Officer, told investors. “or the year earlier quarter, it was 21.6%. We are forecasting housing gross profit margin for the 2025 Q2 in the range of 19.1% to 19.5% and for the full year [of 2025] in the range of 19.2% to 20%, assuming no inventory related charges. Hollinger added that: Our gross margin outlook for both periods reflects lower selling prices than we anticipated in January, reduced operating leverage on lower delivery volume, and the challenging operating environment. 5. No impact from immigration policy changesyet So far, neither Lennar or KB Home have seen “immigration policy changes” impact their businesses. On the labor, Id say outside of the normal things that we would deal with, outside of any kind of regulatory change or ICE or immigration policy changes, its really just been the same,” KB Home COO McGibney told investors. “Weve seen nothing at all related to immigration. I mean, any kind of normal type labor shortage we might see on a day to day basis in a typical year may still be there, but nothing at all related to immigration policy [changes]. 6. KB Home is keeping an eye on tariffs Both Lennar and KB Home told investors in late March that they werent yet seeing impacts from tariffs. I havent seen [impact from tariffs] . . . That may be something thats coming down the road. We havent seen that yet. As to the lumber, we try to diversify on how we lock [in orders]. And well have ninety days, maybe 100 and 120 on the long-term end, COO McGibney told investors. Note: Since KB Home made these comments, additional tariffs have been announced. ResiClub will continue to monitor homebuilder earnings calls to see if their tune changes this quarter.
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E-Commerce
The measles outbreak in West Texas didnt happen just by chance. The easily preventable disease, declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, ripped through communities sprawling across more than 20 Texas counties in part because health departments were starved of the funding needed to run vaccine programs, officials say. We havent had a strong immunization program that can really do a lot of boots-on-the-ground work for years, said Katherine Wells, the health director in Lubbock, a 90-minute drive from the outbreak’s epicenter. Immunization programs nationwide have been left brittle by years of stagnant funding by federal, state and local governments. In Texas and elsewhere, this helped set the stage for the measles outbreak and fueled its spread. Now, cuts to federal funding threaten efforts to prevent more cases and outbreaks. Health departments got an influx of cash to deal with COVID-19, but it wasnt enough to make up for years of neglect. On top of that, trust in vaccines has eroded. Health officials warn the situation is primed to get worse. Recent cuts by the Trump administration have pulled billions of dollars in COVID-19 related funding $2 billion of it slated for immunization programs for various diseases. Overseeing the cuts is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who rose to prominence leading an anti-vaccine movement. While Kennedy has said he wants his agency to prevent future outbreaks, he’s also declined to deliver a consistent and forceful message that would help do so encouraging people to vaccinate their children against measles while reminding them it is safe. At the same time, lawmakers in Texas and about two-thirds of states have introduced legislation this year that would make it easier to opt out of vaccines or otherwise put up barriers to ensuring more people get shots, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. That further undercuts efforts to keep infectious diseases at bay, health officials said. The more than 700 measles cases reported this year in the U.S. have already surpassed last years total. The vast majority more than 540 are in Texas, but cases have popped up in 23 other states. Two Texas children have died. A 6-year-old girl from Gaines County, the center of the outbreak, died in February, the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade. An 8-year-old girl from the same town, Seminole, died earlier this month. Children in the U.S. are generally required to be vaccinated to go to school, which in the past ensured vaccination rates stayed high enough to prevent infectious diseases like measles from spreading. But a growing number of parents have been skipping the shots for their kids. The share of children exempted from vaccine requirements has reached an all-time high, and just 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots in 2023. Thats well below the 95% coverage level that keeps diseases at bay. Keeping vaccination rates high requires vigilance, commitment and money. Though the outbreak in Texas started in Mennonite communities that have been resistant to vaccines and distrustful of government intervention, it quickly jumped to other places with low vaccination rates. There are similar under-vaccinated pockets across the country that could provide the tinder that sparks another outbreak. Its like a hurricane over warm water in the Caribbean, said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston. As long as theres warm water, the hurricane will continue to accelerate. In this case, the warm water is the unvaccinated kids. Flatlined vaccine funding in Texas Lubbock receives a $254,000 immunization grant from the state annually that can be used for staff, outreach, advertising, education and other elements of a vaccine program. That hasnt increased in at least 15 years as the population grew. It used to be enough for three nurses, an administrative assistant, advertising and even goodies to give out at health fairs, Wells said. Now it covers a nurse, a quarter of a nurse, a little bit of an admin assistant, and basically nothing else. Texas has among the lowest per capita state funding for public health in the nation, just $17 per person in 2023, according to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center. Vaccines are among the most successful tools in public healths arsenal, preventing debilitating illnesses and lowering the need for expensive medical care. Childhood vaccines prevent 4 million deaths worldwide each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the measles vaccine will save some 19 million lives by 2030. U.S. immunization programs are funded by a variable mix of federal, state and local money. Federal money is sent to every state, which then decides how much to send to local health departments. The stagnant immunization grant funding in Texas has made it harder for local health departments to keep their programs going. Lubbocks health department, for example, doesn’t have the money to pay for targeted Facebook ads to encourage vaccinations or do robust community outreach to build trust. In Andrews County, which borders Gaines County, the biggest cost of its immunization program is personnel. But while everything has gotten more expensive, the grant hasn’t changed, Health Director Gordon Mattimoe said. That shifts the burden to county governments. Some kick in more money, some dont. His did. The problem: keeping people safe from outbreaks requires high vaccination rates across a broad region, and germs dont stop at county borders. Andrews County, population 18,000, offers a walk-in vaccine clinic Monday through Friday, but other West Texas communities dont. More than half the people who come to the clinic travel fom other counties, Mattimoe said, including much larger places and Gaines County. Some had to drive an hour or more. They did so because they had trouble getting shots in their home county due to long waits, lack of providers and other issues, Mattimoe said. Theyre unable to obtain it in the place that they live. … People are overflowing, over to here, Mattimoe said. Theres an access issue. That makes it more likely people wont get their shots. In Gaines County just 82% of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. Even in Andrews County, where, at 97%, the vaccination rate is above the 95% threshold for preventing outbreaks, it has slipped two percentage points since 2020. Vaccine funding crises arent only in Texas The health departments millions of Americans depend on for their shots largely rely on two federal programs: Vaccines for Children and Section 317 of the Public Health Services Act. Vaccines for Children mostly provides the actual vaccines. Section 317 provides grants for vaccines but also to run programs and get shots into arms. About half of kids qualify for Vaccines for Children, a safety-net program created in response to a 1989-1991 measles epidemic that sickened 55,000 people and killed 123. Section 317 money sent to state and local health departments pays for vaccines as well as nurses, outreach and advertising. Health departments generally use the programs in tandem, and since the pandemic theyve often been allowed to supplement it with COVID-19 funds. The 317 funds have been flat for years, even as costs of everything from salaries to vaccines went up. A 2023 CDC report to Congress estimated $1.6 billion was needed to fully fund a comprehensive 317 vaccine program. Last year, Congress approved less than half that: $682 million. This, along with insufficient state and local funding, forces hard choices. Dr. Kelly Moore, a preventive medicine specialist, said she faced this dilemma when directing Tennessee’s immunization program from 2004 to 2018. What diseases can we afford to prevent and how many people can we afford to protect? Those decisions have to be made every year by every state, said Moore, who now runs the advocacy group Immunize.org. A rural clinic may have to be closed, or evening and weekend hours eliminated, she said. It becomes difficult for them to staff the clinics they have and difficult for the people in those communities to access them, especially if theyre the working poor. At the same time, health officials say more funding is needed to fight misinformation and mistrust about vaccines. In a 2023 survey by the National Association of County and City Health Officials, 80% of local health departments reported vaccine hesitancy among patients or their parents in the previous year, up from 56% in 2017. If we dont invest in education, it becomes even more difficult to get these diseases under control,” Moore said. An unclear future given continuing cuts and hesitancy Facing these headwinds, things got much worse in March when Kennedys health department canceled billions of dollars in state and local funding. After 23 states sued, a judge put a hold on the cuts for now in those states but not in Texas or other states that didnt join the lawsuit. But local health departments are not taking chances and are moving to cut services. HHS said the money, allocated through COVID-19 initiatives, was cut because the pandemic was over. But CDC had allowed the money to be used to shore up public health infrastructure generally, including immunization programs. Before he was confirmed as health secretary, Kennedy vowed not to take vaccines away. But in Texas, his departments cuts mean state and local health departments are losing $125 million in immunization-related federal funding as they deal with the measles outbreak. A spokesperson for the federal health department did not respond to an AP request for comment. Dallas County, 350 miles from where the outbreak began, had to cancel more than 50 immunization clinics, including at schools with low measles vaccination rates, said Dr. Philip Huang, the countys health director. Near the center of the outbreak, Lubbocks health department said seven jobs are on the line because they were paid by those grants. Included in the affected work are immunizations. Across the border in New Mexico, where the outbreak has spread, the state lost grants that funded vaccine education. Kennedys cuts also hit vaccination programs in other states It’s still unclear how the recently announced $2 billion in cuts will affect immunization programs across the country, but details are starting to trickle out from some states. Washington state, for example, would lose about $20 million in vaccination-related funding. Officials were forced to pause mobile vaccine efforts on their Care-A-Van, which has administered more than 6,800 COVID-19 vaccines, 3,900 flu vaccines and 5,700 childhood vaccines since July. The state also had to cancel more than 100 vaccine clinics scheduled through June, including more than 35 at schools. Connecticut health officials estimate if the cuts stand, they will lose $26 million for immunization. Among other reductions, this means canceling 43 contracts with local health departments to increase vaccination rates and raise confidence in vaccines, losing vaccination clinics and mobile outreach in underserved neighborhoods, and stopping the distribution of vaccine-related educational materials. Several of the 23 states suing the federal government, including Minnesota, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, cite losses to vaccine programs. As the cuts further cripple already struggling health departments, alongside increasingly prominent and powerful anti-vaccine voices, doctors worry that vaccine hesitancy will keep spreading. And measles and other viruses will too. My whole lifes purpose is to keep people from suffering. And vaccines are a tremendous way to do that, Moore said. But if we dont invest in them to get them in arms, then we dont see their benefits. Laura Ungar, Michelle R. Smith, and Devi Shastri, Associated Press The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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E-Commerce
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