Motek "Sweetheart" of a Restaurant
9-22-24
Opening Comments
My last note was on the top pizza all over the world. The most opened links were the gruesome photo of the Hezbollah fighter injured from the exploding pager and the link to the Robb Report Best Pizza in the World.
Some of my readers are buying the Eight Sleep Pod 4 or Ultra with my code below. In addition, Amex has a 3% cash back offer with Eight Sleep that can be used with my code for more savings. I can give Rosen Report readers $350 off the Pod 4 Ultra or $200 off any Pod 4. Just visit eightsleep.com/rosen/ and use code ROSEN. I did a write up about my Eight Sleep experience here.
I have been consistent on my South Florida commentary. From November through May, it is an amazing place to live with a remarkable quality of life. My least favorite months are July through October. It rains hard with high humidity and hurricanes. Streets flood and you get inches of rain in short order. Check out the radar from Thursday afternoon during yet another massive thunderstorm. See the note from my golf course on Friday morning: Good morning, we received another 1.7" of rain last night. This has brought the monthly rain total to over 15"!
My sponsor Kevin Lang, of Lang Insurance, 866-964-4434, has helped dozens of my readers improve coverage, save money, and protect their prized possessions. Reach out to Kevin and his team to help you. I did and saved a ton. He writes policies for Home, Auto, Jewelry, Fine Art, Wine, Umbrella, etc. in all 50 states with the best insurance companies. I just received this lovely note from yet another reader regarding his experience with Lang.
Markets
Two Good Charts
Auto Delinquencies
Welfare
WNBA Team Valuations/Pay
Best Attractions in the US
Los Angeles High End Struggling-ULA Impact
US Housing Inventory Growing
MN Office Fire Sale-$10/ft
Video of the Day-Motivation
I loved this short video of a young man who is 5’8” and thought he received a basketball scholarship only to find out that the school’s coach rescinded the offer. The kid accepted an offer from another school and used the rejection as motivation to destroy the original coach’s team for three straight years. You must watch the outcome. “If you are struggling, stop sulking, use it as fuel and motivation.”
Motek-A “Sweetheart” of a Restaurant
I heard great things about the restaurant Motek, which has a half dozen locations around Miami. People were raving and I finally had the opportunity to check it out. Motek means “sweetheart” in Hebrew, and I concur. We went to the Coral Gables location and had a fantastic meal two months ago. Then, this Monday, I went with two readers to the Aventura location, and it, too was very good, but the service was a little spotty. To be clear, I am told that some of the locations are fast causal as opposed to traditional wait service. Gables and Aventura were a more formal setting with indoor and outdoor seating with full wait service.
The website calls it, “a kosher-style Mediterranean restaurant with influences from our ancestors in Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, Yemen, and more.” When I eat food from these regions, I am always blown away by the flavors and spices that you do not normally get the chance to taste. Sumac, mint, shifka, pomegranate, za’atar, harissa, and labneh give the dishes a unique perspective.
We started with tzatziki, hummus tehina with sumac and pine nuts, and a pickle appetizer. They were delicious. I am a connoisseur of tzatziki and this is one of the best I tried. The consistency was thick and bursting with flavor. You could taste the cucumber, dill and labneh. I am very particular about my pita or naan used for dipping with spreads and sauces. The freshly baked pita was outstanding and looked like a work of art and was even better at the Aventura location.
For my entree, I ate the chicken shish kebab with grilled veggies, while the kids had wagyu burgers with caramelized onion and a pomegranate mint aioli. My chicken was tender and came with a tasty tahini dipping sauce as well as onions with sumac. I love onions and devoured everything on my plate. My wife ate an Israeli salad and charcoaled broccolini. For lunch on Wednesday, I tried the Turkish lamb kebab which was seasoned perfectly and quite tender. My pals raved about the chicken schnitzel sandwich.
The presentation of all the dishes was fantastic and everyone enjoyed the food. I would highly recommend eating at Motek assuming all the locations are similar. My son, who is a bit of a foodie said, “Dad, when can we come back here?” That is the mic dropping. He rarely says that in Florida.
I do have one complaint. They automatically add 20% gratuity and do not tell you (not uncommon for Miami). The waiter asked me to sign my bill and there was a section for tip and she acted as though it was not already included (Coral Gables location).
My favorite Middle Eastern restaurants in Miami are now Motek (Multiple Locations), Mandolin (best ambiance-Design District) and Abbale Telavivian Kitchen (SOFI)
Quick Bites
The three major averages notched weekly gains. The S&P 500 rose 1.36%, posting its fifth positive week over the past six weeks. The index is up more than 19% in 2024. The Dow ended the week higher by 1.62%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 1.49%. So far, 60 S&P 500 companies have issued negative earnings per share guidance and 50 S&P 500 companies have announced positive earnings per share guidance for the third quarter. On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by a supersized half point, its first cut since 2020. Despite the rate cut, Treasury yields were higher on the week. The 2-year finished at 3.60% (+3bps on week) and the 10-year at 3.74% (+9bps on the week). Oil finished +4% (on week) to $71/barrel with the aid of the interest rate cuts.
I thought this was a good S&P chart that outlines various events. The 2nd chart shows domestic and foreign net savings in the US. Since 1947, there were only two other times when savings were negative, in 2008 and 2020.
I read a post by Glenn Mercer that a reader sent me regarding auto delinquencies. Prime loans (prime + super prime) make up about 85% of all new-car loans, near-prime 10%, and subprime and worse, 5%, according to Experian.⁴ And we can see here that subprime delinquencies are up to 6%, and prime up to 0.6% (sic). Recall that delinquency is triggered when a loan payment is just one day late. I had written about increasing delinquencies and the charts are going in the wrong direction.
I have been critical of the Federal deficits, spending, and mounting debt resulting in over $1 trillion per year in interest. I have not spent enough time discussing the amount of money spent on welfare. This is not to suggest it is unnecessary, but I wanted to put it into perspective, and this WSJ opinion piece entitled, “Welfare is What’s Eating the Budget,” explains it nicely. Means-tested social welfare spending totaled $1.6 trillion in 2023. Welfare spending now absorbs an astonishing 72.6% of unobligated general revenue (total revenue net of Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes and premiums and mandatory interest on the public debt) and is larger than the claims against unobligated general revenue by Social Security (4.1%), Medicare (23.5%) and defense (37.2%) combined. Since funding for the War on Poverty ramped up in 1967, welfare payments received by the average work-age household in the bottom quintile of income recipients has risen from $7,352 in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars to $64,700 in 2022, the last year with available household income data. This 780% increase was 9.2 times the rise in income earned by the average American household. Since 1967 defense spending has fallen from 68% of unobligated general revenue to 37.2% in 2023, almost a mirror image of the growth in means-tested welfare benefits. With the explosion of means-tested transfer payments, the portion of prime work-age persons in the bottom quintile who actually work has fallen to 36% from 68%. Requiring all able-bodied Americans to work as a condition for receiving welfare would do more than reduce the deficit. It would bring people back into the economy, the source of prosperity and economic independence. If you give a person a fish, they eat for a day. If you teach a person to fish, they eat for a lifetime. We need to change our welfare policies and put some onus back on the recipients.
Great CNBC article about the economics of the WNBA and why current stars make so little money. The WNBA has enjoyed some of the fastest growth a sports league has ever seen, thanks in large part to superstar rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. But top WNBA players don’t yet have the lofty salaries to match.
The three most valuable WNBA teams — the Las Vegas Aces, the Seattle Storm and the New York Liberty — were valued in June at between 13 and 70 times the price of their most recent sale, according to Sportico’s first-ever WNBA team valuations. Valuations will likely only rise: The league signed an 11-year $2.2 billion media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBCUniversal this summer. The $200 million-per-year agreement will start in 2026. The current deal is about $60 million for 2024. As viewership and attendance rise, the league is also adding three teams. The WNBA and its teams are expected to lose about $50 million this year, according to one report in The Washington Post.
The biggest thing I miss about NYC is the culture in terms of museums, Broadway shows, music, sports….and restaurants. This new review has the Metropolitan Museum as the #1 ranked business of all time on Yelp. I was involved in the Met when I lived in NYC and co-chaired the annual Acquisitions Dinner for multiple years. I have spent over 150 hours in the Met Museum in my life and love walking the Temple of Dendur. The museum is so vast and has something for everyone (African, American, Ancient Eastern, Arms & Armor, Asian, Costume, Drawings and Prints, European, Greek and Roman, Islamic, Medieval, Modern, Musical Instruments, Photography, and more). If you live in or near NYC and do not spend time at the Met, you are doing yourself a disservice. I fondly recall our kids going to the Met pajama party every year, given our involvement. It was one of my favorite nights of the year.
2024 Election
I led with the story of the ABC/Harris campaign collusion of the debate for a reason. The SEC now has the complaints lodged against Disney and ABC. The accusations are damaging. The suggestion is ABC aided Harris to impact the election and in return ABC/Disney would get monetary or “future considerations.” Nothing to see here folks. Look away. We have a MAJOR news agency colluding with a Presidential candidate to impact an election in return for other consideration and it won’t make the news? If this proves true, many heads should roll.
I would like to emphatically state, that I am not a Donald Trump supporter and have never voted for Donald Trump. The context of the conversations heard and among other observations is that ABC News is working with the Kamala Harris campaign, and that Disney may exact monetary or other future considerations if they aid in the election of Kamala Harris. I have sat idly by for years and watched the media on both sides of the political spectrum become nothing more than campaign ads for politicians. It is clear that there are multiple considerations being exchanged in this current Presidential campaign. I have enclosed further evidence for your consideration.
On the polls, which I have always questioned, Harris seems to have a lead. This link outlines the national and key states in an interactive chart from Nate Silver. He suggests Harris leads nationally and in MI, MN, NV, NH, PA, VA & WI, while Trump leads in AZ, FL, GA, NC, & TX Also of note, her PredictIt (betting odds) have improved as well.
Harris Outpacing Trump in Ad Spending in Every Swing State, Including Long Shot North Carolina
Harris agrees to CNN debate on Oct. 23, Trump says ‘it’s too late’
5 insane Biden-Harris appliance regulations heading your way
Harris and Walz giving fewer interviews than any candidates in modern history
Biden-Harris border official claims cover-up as he was allegedly ordered to hide release of migrants
These “incidents” happen everywhere. I never hear of people being forced to take off Biden or Harris hats. The bias is concerning in what is supposed to be a free country. I would say the same thing if it went the other way.
I am not the biggest fan of Trump, but when he says the same thing, he is vilified. I don’t think it is fair.
How Biden and Trump compare on Trump’s favorite metric: Stock prices
Trump Media closes at a new 52-week low on heavy trading after lockup expires
For first time, poll shows Colin Allred beating Ted Cruz in November
This would be a huge upset in a Red state. Very close race.
Israel/Middle East
I love the story of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies which have maimed and killed terrorists. Please read how the BRILLIANT Israelites did it. They created a company to manufacture them after Nasrallah was concerned about cell phones being hacked. Additionally, Israel carried out airstrikes in Beirut that killed a Hezbollah commander and many others. The commander had a $7mm bounty on his head who was behind the Marine barracks attack in 1983 that killed 241 Americans. It also seems that the war is escalating in the Middle East and check out the link showing a massive explosion in Lebanon this weekend. This headline, “Israel on brink of 'full-scale invasion' of south Lebanon as it warns 'back down or else'“ caught my attention. Thirty-eight were killed in a blast in Beirut including two Hezbollah leaders.
Saudi Arabia will not recognize Israel without a Palestinian state, says Crown Prince
Harris says she backs Biden’s withholding of 2,000-pound bombs from Israel
FBI says Iranian hackers sent unsolicited stolen Trump info to people associated with Biden campaign
What to know about the two waves of deadly explosions that hit Lebanon & Syria
According to the antisemitic CNN, 8,000 missiles fired by Hezbollah are not escalating, but blowing up pagers and walkie-talkies is escalating.
Gallant says IDF diverting resources to northern border in ‘new phase’ of war
UN Overwhelmingly Passes Resolution Seeking Israel’s Ouster From West Bank, Gaza
Columbia University Anti-Israel Protester From Last Spring Now Teaching at the School
Samantha Jaser was caught spreading antisemitic libels of Jews harvesting organs back in January.
What did her employer, @nyuniversity, do with the news? Promoted her to Vice Chair of DEI.
Other Headlines
Market bull Tom Lee hesitant to jump into this post-Fed rally
“This Fed cut cycle is setting the stage for markets to be really strong over the next one month or three months,” Lee, the head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC. However, Lee added that he is not yet fully confident that stocks will continue their upward trajectory as the U.S. presidential election in November looms.
Ray Dalio says the Fed faces a tough balancing act as the economy faces ‘enormous amount of debt’
Qualcomm recently approached Intel about a possible takeover
YTD, Intel stock is -57% despite being 20% off the recent lows.
FedEx stock sinks on Q1 earnings miss (Stock-13%)
Nike CEO John Donahoe is out, replaced by company veteran Elliott Hill
Stock +8% on news.
Starlink is increasingly interfering with astronomy, scientists say
Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant, sell the power to Microsoft for AI
158 Democrats Voted Against Deporting ‘Non-Citizens’ Who Commit Violence Against Women
How is this even a discussion?
Boca Raton double homicide suspect crosses state lines & gets caught in Georgia
You don’t see stuff like this in Boca generally. The murders were 5 minutes from my house. It was a purse snatching gone wrong.
Prosecutors: Chicago Man Robs Woman on CTA Days After Getting Probation for Prior CTA Robbery
I was born in Chicago and I never plan on going back again. My first job was at Continental Bank on LaSalle and Jackson in Chicago and my MBA was at UofC. The policies there are just broken.
When you have no consequences for crime, DA’s welcome shoplifting and looting, you have chaos. This is BEVERLY HILLS. Watch the video for yourself.
Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ held a secret — and scientists just discovered the ‘hidden turbulence’
Amazing story. Van Gogh is one of the most important artists of all time. His works at the Met Museum in NYC are dazzling. Now, this discovery of his understanding airflow or “turbulence” from almost 140 years ago is remarkable.
A wall of secrets may crumble as feds call out enablers of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' alleged sex crimes
The more I read about this one, the more convinced I am many more household names will be involved.
Caitlin Clark WNBA playoffs record ticket prices in one unreal stat
The cheapest price for a ticket for the first round is going for $133, according to TickPick. What’s even more crazy, is this is more than the combined amount of all four of the 2023 WNBA Finals’ cheapest tickets combined for the Las Vegas Aces vs. The New York Liberty. Clark’s WNBA Draft Blue VIper Rookie card (1 of 1) sold for $84k, yet another record.
Jamie Dimon says an ‘evil axis’ of countries are his top concern for the next 100 years
Real Estate
My kids and I enjoy watching “Million Dollar Listing LA” and the new season is quite telling. Finding high-end buyers has taken a sharp turn for the worse this season. The brokers continue to cite the challenges in finding buyers for big properties and continue to mention ULA transfer taxes, the new punitive tax in LA county. ULA-Effective for transactions closing after June 30, 2024, the new thresholds for ULA will be $5,150,000 and $10,300,000. Transactions above $5,150,000 but under $10,300,000 will be assessed a 4% tax and transactions $10,300,000 and up will be assessed a 5.5% tax.
Home listings are up sharply in many cities according to this article. Nationwide, active listings in August rose 36% compared to the same month last year, according to a report from Realtor.com. This marks the 10th consecutive month of annual growth. However, supply is still 26% lower than in August 2019, before the pandemic. "This August, with more homes on the market, price reductions are becoming more common, asking prices are leveling off, and homes are taking longer to sell," wrote Danielle Hale, Realtor.com's chief economist, in a statement. "While the Fed's anticipated rate cut has already led to lower mortgage rates, it seems some buyers and sellers are waiting for further declines." More supply and longer market times are finally driving prices down. In August, the share of homes with price reductions rose to 19%, up 3 percentage points from the previous August. The median list price dropped 1.3% year-over-year. This is partly due to a shift toward smaller homes on the market, though prices are still 36% higher than they were in August 2019.
Office buildings totaling 633k sq ft in downtown Minneapolis just sold for $6M or a shocking $10 per sq ft. The price represents a 91% 'discount' to what the seller bought the towers for - $74M in 2019!
© 2024 The Rosen Report LLC. All rights reserved. Does not constitute investment, financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult with your lawyers and professional financial advisers. Rosen Report™ #719 ©Copyright 2024 Written By Eric Rosen.
