Expect the Stock market to take a nosedive this week. The Fed is planning to announce another rate hike and the inflation report dropping yesterday just adds more fuel to the fire.
The $400 Billion Student Loan Forgiveness plan is in the hands of the supreme Court. Six Republican led states filed lawsuits against the Biden
Administrations forgiveness plan that wants to wipe out $10K of student loans for millions of borrowers. The reason the six states and others are so against the plan is that it could make inflation even worse than it already is and punish those who never took out student loans or already paid them off.
Big Pharma is on a buying spree. Amgen has bought Horizon Theraputics for $27B, J&J bought Abiomed for $16B, Pfizer is buying Global Blood Theraputics for $5B, and Merck bought Imago BioSciences for $1B. Big Pharme is constantly trying to consolidate power and become more monopolistic so they can charge insurance companies more. This of course hurts the consumer, that's you, because insurance companies are forced to charge higher premiums and deductibles. This is one reason why my wife
and I switched to a Christian Health Share Ministry years ago.
Expensive Veggies!! The cost of most veggies is up 80% since last year and have jumped 38% in November alone. The
reason for this the ongoing drought out west. Authorities have limited water consumption in Arizona and California to try and keep the Colorado River from drying up.
Keep an eye on how
restaurants do this holiday season. Cheaper than majority chains like Olive Garden are doing well because thei endless bread, soup, and salad are almost a bargain when compared to eating at home. See the story above about veggie costs!! Inflation makes for a weird world. But hey when Olive Garden can buy
supplies in bulk and serve customers in streamlined ways, it makes since that they can rival the cheapness of at home cooking costs. In counter to all this Wendy's has raised prices a reported 35% from last year which is more than any their fast-food chain (The calculation may have something to do with the 4 for $4 becoming second place to the $5 Biggie Bag).
Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are losing millions in organized retail theft. This could lead to store closures and price hikes across the stores.
Oil/Gas prices keep declining because of fear that demand is plummeting. Why is demand going down
for oil? Essentially three reasons. 1.) China protests hurt demand for oil consumption. 2.) so far we have had a mild winter and this of course lowers demand for heating oil. 3.) inflation has people being a bit more cautious when it comes to travel. People are staying home and not putting their money into the pump.
The crypto world is in complete disarray after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, and retail investors have virtually no confidence in Crypto at the moment. HOWEVER, big financial institutions like Goldman Sachs are taking out their check books and trying to buy all things crypto (Exchanges, Companies, and coins). Maybe GS
knows something we don't or maybe they just have the purchasing power to take a major risk.
Governments listen to corporations with power! The US has awarded a $9B Cloud Contract to Google, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft which is helping the
"private" rich companies get even richer. And on the other side of the globe, the CCP
is lightening up on Covid Restrictions because Foxconn (The world's largest iPhone assembler) cried poor mouth. Money talks, especially in government, and even more especially in corrupt government.
Counter to the above story, the Federal Trade Commision sued Microsoft in order to block the tech giants $75B plan to buy Activision which is a world leader in video games. If Microsoft is
able to acquire Activision it will really beef up its already monopolistic position in tech.
