Short Takes #11: Easier To Destroy
David Brooks | Manufacturing Down For 10th Month | They Say One Thing, But… | A New Car? Prepare To Pay.
It’s easier to destroy a social order than to build one.
| David Brooks, The Sins of the Moderates
…
Brooks was discussing Rumpletrumpskin and his aggressive undermining of America’s moral compass. However, I think there is a congruent undoing of the social covenants in business.
Consider the push to get office workers back in the office five days per week: the pre-pandemic model. The arguments presented by senior executives are generally unsubstantiated — like the mythical ‘serendipity’ of great ideas from physical proximity1,2.
Those executives are seeking to destroy the pandemic rapprochement between workers and workplace, and reimpose the prior arrangement. They want to Make The Office Great Again, for the managerial elite, but not for everybody.
Manufacturing Down For 10th Month
Dan Burns, and Lucia Mutikani report on what may be one of the motivations for Trump’s wagging the dog in Venezuela [emphasis mine]:
US factory sector contracts for 10th straight month in December -- - Institute for Supply Management manufacturing PMI drops to 47.9, lowest since October 2024.
Trump’s tariffs impact manufacturing, raising average tariff to nearly 17%.
Factory employment declines for 11th month.
U.S. manufacturing activity slumped to a 14-month low in December, with new orders contracting further and input costs grinding higher as the sector continued to bear the imprint of President Donald Trump’s import tariffs.
The Institute for Supply Management survey on Monday suggested a recovery was unlikely in the near-term, but economists were hopeful of a turnaround this year as Trump’s tax cuts took effect.
Funny, I didn’t hear this on the news.
They Say One Thing, But…
Buried in an interesting article about becoming an ‘Octopus Organization’, Jana Werner and Phil Le-Brun reveal a basic truth:
While 73% of executives recognized curiosity and imagination as critical, only 9% of employees felt their leaders supported those traits, such as by encouraging them to be curious and to explore new ideas.
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
A New Car? Prepare To Pay.
$50,080: The average price of a new car (via WSJ) in September 2025—a new record—up from less than $38,000 in early 2020, according to Kelley Blue Book. As sticker prices marched higher, so did monthly payments. Fast forward to November of this year and the average monthly payment for a new car was estimated to be $760, according to J.D. Power. The struggle to keep monthly payments in check is so tough that the typical 48- to 60-month car-loan term has given way to 72-month terms, and longer.
If only we could buy Chinese cars, which are half the price and twice as good. But somehow the price of cars, like housing, childcare, health insurance, and food, continues to spike.
