Fans of MASH know that Alan Alda turned 90 yesterday, and the remaining actors from the show joined him on the beach. When you reach a certain age you don’t care about the employment picture. Amazon laying off another 16,000, as announced this week, won’t help anyone’s “the economy is doing great” argument. As economist Elliot Eisenberg points out, “The most disturbing piece of information from last week’s income data is the confirmation of a complete lack of income growth over the past 12 months. During 11/24, real (after inflation) disposable (after taxes) per capita personal income was $52,324 and during 11/25 it was $52,557. Additionally, job growth over those 12 months was an anemic 857,000, or half a percent and declining, the lowest growth rate since 11/2010.” Certainly how economics impact lenders will be a topic on today’s The Big Picture at 3PM ET with guest Better.com CEO Vishal Garg for a wide-ranging conversation on the evolution of Better, what AI-powered mortgage looks like in practice, scaling to $100 billion in volume, the One Day Mortgage, blending technology with local origination, rebuilding culture and trust, and how leadership teams should be positioning for the next turn in the housing cycle. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Truework, the one verification solution to replace in-house waterfalls. Verify any borrower with a VOIE solution that automates the entire process to quickly deliver the most accurate and complete reports with broad GSE coverage. Today’s has an interview with Sitewire’s Bryan Kester that includes an exploration of how permitting friction, underestimated rehab complexity, and weak pre-funding diligence (not land or labor) have become the true constraints on housing supply, and what smarter underwriting and process discipline look like as the market adapts.)