I remember that when the 2008 Global Financial Crisis happened, there was this undercurrent (from the heterodox analysts) that what precipitated the inability to kick the can on debt repayments was an uptick on the cost of energy / oil.
So here was the simplified model of the idea: before 2008 Joe Plumber drove out of town and kept going until he could afford the home prices. He works remotely and he commutes 45 miles back into town to work where the clients live.
Joe could afford to live X miles from his customer as long as the transport costs are stable. Now, as the price of oil creeps up, it outpaces the amount he can charge customers squeezing his profits. When he can't afford to fill his gas tank from the profit on his jobs, there are more and more further out jobs he just doesn't accept to do. This basically crushes a LOT of marginal businesses at the same time it demolishes the stability of the home values farther from urban areas.
So basically, Joe plumber can't pay his mortgage and living in the boonies sucks, and because the commute is so expensive for anyone else also, nobody else wants this house and he can't sell it easily and not lose money. In the background a bunch of wall-street types have leveraged the whole financial / lending system...and hence the 2008 crisis.
the 2008 financial crisis wasn’t really a bubble after all. In fact, they suggest, house prices were rising rationally because too few houses were being built in places people most wanted to move to, not because of irrational speculation
The whole airbnb / zoom-boom / zoom-town thing is like an even larger out-migration than the lead-up to 2008 GFC. People weren't driving further in the close enivrons around high cost of living cities, they were moving even more distances to low cost of living areas (sun belt + continental interior) that had been losing residents and had cheap land and houses. They don't really live a daily commuting distance from their jobs.
https://www.cbre.com/insights/briefs/motm-the-zoom-housing-boom-is-coming-to-an-end-in-the-us
So...this shuffle was fueled by affluent young people who can work remotely and it was accelerated by covid. There is some evidence that people / economies who are tied to goods production + distribution / manufacturing / physical tangible goods could not flow towards cheaper areas. Most of the moves went out to 100-500 miles away from the original town not clear across the entire country.
Anyhow, I don't know what I'm saying, but I somewhat wonder if the Return-to-Office mandates will end up being the exact same rug-pull that happened to Joe Plumber in 2008. It'll trigger a crash. Now all these tech workers who bid up real estate need to flock back to their coastal cities and the current drive is WAY too far and the house they bought is dropping in value...and...and...
And that speaker is more or less stationary, and it's inside a room?
I think your absolute best audio (for speech) would be from a lavalier mic clipped on the person. Second best might be a shotgun / directional mic focused on the speaker. Zoom recorder placed in the room will be more likely pick up any other audio like HVAC hum, passing traffic, footsteps BUT it will also pick up the room acoustics and stereo image.
One suggestion is to actually capture audio on multiple devices and mix them (if needed) in Post-production. For post production you can play with EQ and compression, plus volume normalization to get a good clarity.
It's always nice to attach the mics to their own independent supports so that you don't get any unwanted microphonics from touch / vibrations. For example, if you place the lav clip on the person but they brush their clothes, or if you stand the mic on the table but they tap the table as they speak...