The Summer rally in the Stock market did not last long at all. Fed Chair Jerome Powell continues to spook investors and the market at large as he struggles to contain inflation with more interest rate hikes coming down the pike. The S&P is now down 15% for the year.

 

Student Loan forgiveness?! Applications for the $10K Student Loan forgiveness program announced by Pres. Biden last week will be available in about 2 weeks and once the application is submitted then it will be about 6 weeks before you see your balance adjusted. This information comes from the Federal Gov. itself so times all those numbers by at least three. 

 

This loan forgiveness plan is a slap in the face to people who did not go to college, saved money, chose to pay back their loans early, and our choosing to go to college now at even higher costs. Keep in mind that the Gov. does not make money, they only take money from citizens who make it. This debt forgiveness plan is only going to increase the demand while also increasing inflation at a time when inflation is already rampant. "Oh great, $10K is being forgiven off my student loans, but wait, why is my grocery bill $50 more expensive than it was two months ago?!" It does not take an economics degree to figure out that when the government spends $300M it doesn't have in a time when the economy is rough that a lot of bad is in our future.

 

For all the people saying that now these college grads can spend more money and bolster the economy, please keep in mind that the government is still going to try and recoup that money by raising taxes on the "rich." If you tax Jeff Bezos an additional $100M a year, do you think he reaches into his own pocket to pay that money? of course not, he says raise the price of everything on Amazon by 3% and he passes those costs off to you! There is no such thing as a free lunch!! Don't take my word for it, take Thomas Sowells word for it. 

 

Crypto companies have spent a LOT of money on ads over the past 24 months and it turns out they do not have much to show for it. The market downturn has been especially hard on the digital currencies and in a Pew survey only 16% of respondents said they invested/used crypto. That is the same number from a survey done in September of 2021.

 

Ethereum is going all in, and the Crypto world is holdings its breath. in Mid-September ETH is going from PoW to PoS which essentially means it is trying to become more efficient and use about 99.95% less energy. If it pays off as ETH/Crypto enthusiasts hope it could be the big push ETH needs to skyrocket this winter. If it fails, then the whole crypto world is in for a very cold few months.