Fundrise

Benjamin Miller joined Squawk Box this morning to discuss Fundrise's efforts to democratize access to private tech companies.

[This is an excerpt from our end-of-year letter to investors, published Dec. 30, 2023. Link below.] It’s the big things that matter. We live in a world that demands a constant stream of new and interesting content to digest. Financial news sites like CNBC or Bloomberg update articles multiple times a day with theories and predictions about why things are moving in one direction or the other. And, as a result, we are prone to over-extrapolating a lot of the noise caused by “little things” that eventually just fade away into the background. Ultimately, it’s the few big things (more obvious often than we’d like to admit) that really matter. The past several years have seemingly been a steady stream of one random unprecedented event after the next, when in actuality they are the logical and sequential consequences brought about by the pandemic — it was the big thing. The onset of covid led to a global shutdown. The shutdown broke supply chains along with decades-old patterns and systems that had become ossified within both society and the economy. The response to the shutdown was unprecedented government stimulus, vast amounts of newly printed money, and a 0% interest rate monetary policy. This simultaneous shrinking of supply with a rapid expansion of demand led to inflation, which in turn led to the first significant rate hiking cycle in nearly 50 years. And rising interest rates led to a fall in asset values because, as we’ve now stated ad nauseam, prices move down when interest rates go up. As the system continues to work through the domino effect of unwinding the past several years, we still expect tighter monetary policy to result in an inevitable dampening of the broader economy, including slower growth, rising unemployment, and potentially a significant decline in stocks. The irony is that in some sense regardless of the reason rates come down—either because the Fed was right about a soft landing or we are correct about a recession—it’s strongly positive for real estate values and, in our expectation, the Fundrise portfolio (again, remember that in the near term lower interest rates boost real estate values). Read the full letter: https://lnkd.in/eJyUum-N

Despite the optimistic headlines, there's growing evidence behind the scenes that a recession could still be on the way. [Clip from Onward, ep. 32: "Buying the Bottom" with Benjamin Miller, released 12/30/2023]

Interest rates have an extraordinary impact on the short-term valuation of real estate assets, often regardless of the underlying fundamentals. See all of our funds' active and past projects at fundrise.com/assets. This content is not investment advice. All investments carry risk which could lead to loss.

The pandemic was the "meteorite dropped into the ocean," creating ripple effects throughout the economy that are still playing out today. This clip is from our podcast, Onward, ep. 32: "Buying the Bottom"

On the latest episode of Onward, Benjamin Miller and Cardiff de Alejo Garcia cover the state of the economy, and Ben makes a big call on the real estate market specifically. You can listen to Onward anywhere you get your podcasts. Apple: https://lnkd.in/e5GHnGan Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e9xNxjPQ

In August of 2007, which was more exciting: Barry Bonds or treasury bonds? Benjamin Miller's answer may surprise you. via Real Vision and Maggie Lake

A few days ago, Benjamin Miller sat down again with Real Vision's Maggie Lake to talk about the impending financial crisis. Ben also touched on the bridge role Fundrise played in the immediate aftermath of the SVB collapse and how that impacted our entry into venture capital. 

AI x Meteorology [via Tomasz Tunguz's conversation with Benjamin Miller on the latest episode of the Onward podcast]

"There's a lot more debt in the system than might be apparent. And typically that debt, or debt in general, makes you fragile. And that fragility is the risk." On The Motley Fool Money podcast, Benjamin Miller spoke with Deidre Woollard about the increased pressure on the financial system due to the lagging effects of higher interest rates.