My end-of-week morning reads: • One Million New-Car Buyers Are Gone and They’re Not Coming Back Soon : WSJ on the demand hole left by affordability — a million households permanently priced out of the new-car market. The structural part of the auto cycle that doesn’t show up in monthly SAAR. High gas prices, rising interest rates and stubborn inflation are keeping buyers at home and cars on the lots ( Wall Street Journal ) • Henry Ford Upped Wages So Workers Became Consumers. The Rest Is History. : Barron’s on the actual economic logic behind Ford’s $5 day — turnover costs, not altruism — and how the story keeps getting retold in service of whatever today’s argument needs. Useful corrective. The decision helped create America as we know it today. ( Barron’s ) see also Why Costco pays $30/hr and Target doesn’t : A clean Substack post on the operating math behind Costco’s wage premium — turnover savings, throughput, member economics.…