Housing Bubble?

 The chart below shows the yearly percent change in the Case-Shiller Minneapolis Home Price Index from 1990 to 2020 (using December to December numbers). The 10.2% increase in 2020 was big, but four of the 31 years analyzed had even bigger increases. The 2020 increase can still be viewed as unique, given that it happened during a recession. The other big increases happened in 2012, during the recovery from the Great Recession, and 1999 to 2001, around the time of the Dot-com bubble. The mean yearly change is 3.92%.

Meaning of The Killing of a Sacred Deer

This post contains spoilers for The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Some have identified the meaning of Yorgos Lanthimos' movie The Killing of a Sacred Deer as detailing a tragedy of karmic fate. Steven caused the death of Martin's father; the movie has us watch the painful march toward an inevitable rebalancing of this transgression, despite all attempts to deny it or avoid it. In reality, the meaning is more complicated than this. The Killing of a Sacred Deer is about the hollowness of vengeance, and the search for meaning in familial relationships. The eating habits of the characters are key to demonstrating this. When we see Steven and Martin eating together at the diner, Steven asks Martin if he is going to eat his fries. Martin explains that he really likes fries and is saving them for last. Steven says that he does the same thing. Later in the movie, Martin is eating spaghetti, and recalls to Anna that he was once told that he eats spaghetti just like his father does. Martin explains that he later found out that everyone eats spaghetti the same way, and that he was even more disappointed by this realization than he was when learning that his father had died. Finally, at the end of the movie, we see the Murphy family eating at the diner while Martin sits at the counter. We see Kim eating her fries without a bite taken from her hamburger. It's easy to view Martin's role in the movie as a messenger from the karmic forces of the universe, but things might make more sense if we view him as more of a protagonist. Martin wanted Steven to replace his father. He took their commonality in the way they eat fries as a sign that such a relationship was warranted. Martin believed that with Bob dead, he would be able to take Bob's place in the Murphy family. The final scene illustrates the hollowness of Martin's vengeance. The family remains together, and Martin remains separate, sitting alone at the counter, and furthermore, vexed that Kim retains her place in the family despite the fact that she doesn't eat fries the way her father does.