Hello C3 Family!

Weekly Rant - I know my alternatives suck

(Not really, they are great)

FIRST OFF - There will be no C3 newsletter for the next two weeks. I know, that greatly depresses you and you have no idea how life will go on without my amazingly profound rants. I am sure you will all survive...somehow. As for me, my survival will be dependent on my wife and I's mental fortitude. We are voluntarily putting ourselves through a test of perseverance that will shake us to our core. Namely, road tripping for a combined 34ish hours with four children under the age of 6. 

Where the real rant starts - About once a week I read a comment or get an email about how I should stop bad mouthing the stock market if I cannot come up with a viable alternative. When I say that we should focus on raising big Christian families, building Christian communities and starting Christian businesses (buying land is nice too, if you can afford it) I usually get hit with the "That is too hard" or "That is impractical" or "Those aren't alternatives!" To all of this I say...you are correct sir/madam.

All the alternatives I suggest are hard, our society does make it impractical, and they are not really one to one alternatives. BUT, and it is a BIG BUT, they are things we should be doing, and they are things that will pay off in the future. Perhaps not our earthly future, but rather for future generations. besides if I did recommend a 1:1 alternative, then that alternative would probably be heinous just like the stock market.

Also, I am trying to start the life/disability insurance equivalent to all those amazing health share ministries. It may never happen, but at least there is some effort going into creating an alternative that is kind of closer to a 1:1 replacement of the stock market. 

Anyway, God Bless you all and see you in the New Year!

Top Stories of the Year (or so we like to think!)

• C3 transitioned from an ethical stock picking business to a passion project that claims the stock market is counter to Christian ethics and virtue. This ruffled many feathers, but we actually got more Thank You's than hate mail, and for that we thank you!!

• AI dominated everything in terms of finance. Venture Capital groups and Big Tech couldn't help but throw billions at AI projects.

• Movies for us, were a bit of a dud. Barbenheimer and horror films ruled the day and that seems to be a signifier of our culture taking a nosedive. Though big wins from Sound of Freedom and Jesus Revolution are major bright spots.

• Fed rate hikes look like they may be going the way of the dinosaur for a little while, but that means the job market has cooled. Let's hope inflation levels off in 2024. To all those exerts claiming XYZ or ABC are going to happen...hahaha!!!

• The housing market is still on the brink of collapse and with the possibility of regulating commissions for realtors, and baring hedge funds from owning single family homes, maybe 2024 could flip to a buyers market? MAYBE being a key word there.

• No matter what anyone says, it looks like only an act of God will keep Biden and Trump from being the nominees for president.

• Wars in Ukraine and Gaza are going to keep global supply chains on shaky ground for the foreseeable future. The massive amount of people in the west speaking against Israel is predictable given how diseased our society is, but it is still the worst kind of impressive.

• Stocks finished the year strong by riding the coattails of AI. That is pretty much all there is to say on that, other than most analysts think 2024 is going to be favorable for speculators.

• Our biggest economic enemy, the CCP is still struggling to recover from there covid lockdowns. Woes for the CCP economy are a mixed bag of outcomes for western world finance. on one hand, the US has opportunities to capitalize and bring production home or overtake certain markets, on the other hand major US companies have lost big revenue generators.

• EVERYTHING ELSE: For some reason, Beyonce and Taylor Swift made a bunch of money. Sam Altman, Open AI's former CEO, was ousted because he was too conservative in his AI approach. A lot of unions formed. The FTX collapse did not completely destroy Crypto as BTC has climbed over the past two months.