90 Percent of Student Loan Borrowers Say They’re Not Ready to Restart Payments: Survey - Newsweek

A new survey from the advocacy group Student Debt Crisis found that 9 in 10 borrowers are not prepared to start paying off their loans again on October 1.

They’ve been awash in cash for 17 months and, in that time, didn’t imagine that one day the spigot would be turned back on.

People who loan you money expect to get it back. Who knew?!

Saving for Retirement? Now You Can Bet on Bitcoin. - WSJ

In a recent survey of more than 500 financial advisers conducted by the Financial Planning Association and two other organizations, 14% of the advisers said they use or recommend cryptocurrency

Maybe a good time to fire your financial adviser, a wholly unregulated job title in the financial services industry.

Party Controlling Executive, Legislative Branches Blames Minority Party For Everything Going Wrong - The Babylon Bee

“We could have resisted Donald Trump at every turn, but we chose to take the high road and helped him make America great again,” Pelosi said. “And how do those Republicans repay us? By completely dismantling the spirit of cooperation and bipartisan unity that we Democrats have built up over the years.”

The start of something delicious.

🥚🧀🍄🧅

Huge Spike In Americans Buying F-15s After Biden Suggests You’ll Need Them To Overthrow Government - The Babylon Bee

All over the nation, American citizens were seen parking their brand-new F-15s in their driveways and garages.

I almost picked one up on GovDeals, but I decided the $42,000 cost per flight hour was a bit outside of my budget.

Renters Could Collect Home Down-Payment Points With Credit Card - WSJ

The card program also attempts to incentivize non-rent spending by increasing the rewards for rent when cardholders spend more on everything else. Mastercard declined to elaborate further on how it will profit from the card without fees on rent payments.

I’m guessing it will have something to do with the advertised APR range of 15-22.5%, with top rates for subprime borrowers at 30%.

Unlike homeowners, who build equity with every monthly mortgage payment, renters get no long-term benefits from their monthly payments. Paying by credit card gives renters some additional value that could help them buy a house, Bilt says.

The additional value, of course, will be muted by the large credit card balances that ironically will put homeownership further out of reach for the renters “helped” by this credit card.

For the typical card user spending $1,500 on monthly rent for 10 years, Bilt estimates the accumulated points savings for a down payment would equal about $6,000.

Afghan Government Could Collapse Six Months After U.S. Withdrawal, New Intelligence Assessment Says - WSJ

The U.S. intelligence community concluded last week that the government of Afghanistan could collapse as soon as six months after the American military withdrawal from the country is completed, according to officials with knowledge of the new assessment.

But the drones, tho?

Biden Administration Removes Fannie, Freddie Overseer After Court Ruling - WSJ

The White House decision to replace Mark Calabria as head of the FHFA paves the way for President Biden to install his own appointee to oversee Fannie and Freddie, which are regulated by the agency and back roughly half of the $11 trillion mortgage market.

That’s too bad. I thought Mark did a pretty good job. Original term was set to expire in 3 years.

SCOUTS is right, though. President should have full authority over all Executive Branch employees.

In the run-up to the 2008 housing crisis, Fannie and Freddie got into trouble by taking on increasing risks, primarily to compete with Wall Street firms and later because lawmakers wanted them to support a weakening housing market.

Mark was also right to recapitalize and release Fannie and Freddie. 13 years of conservatorship is too much. The emergency is over, folks.

“A Biden-led FHFA will focus instead on how the GSEs can actually support the nation’s housing needs,” referring to the acronym for government-sponsored enterprises.

And we all see how well the brilliant government-owned student loan program has worked out! That $1.7T program is dwarfed by the $11T mortgage program that taxpayers guarantee.

Fresh cut.

Apple Says Allowing Sideloading on iPhone Would Expose Users to Serious Privacy and Security Risks - MacRumors

Apple added that allowing sideloading would potentially force users to accept privacy and security risks, because some apps necessary for work, school, or other tasks may no longer be available on the App Store, and scammers could also trick users into thinking they are safely downloading apps from the App Store when that is not the case.

And yet, every day, millions of Mac users make it work.

This is such a flawed argument, I hope they were embarrassed drafting it. They want their money, full stop.

The Attack on an Alzheimer’s Drug - WSJ Opinion

The hostility to Aduhelm illustrates the healthcare paternalism of American progressives. They believe we spend too much money on old people. They want to put the government in charge of paying for all health care, and then put “experts” in charge of determining what treatments patients can receive so that the elderly can go gently into the night.

There is a direct correlation between the amount of time I spend reading books and the amount of writing I do.

Users Underwhelmed by iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Survey Suggests - MacRumors

Less than one percent of respondents thought that iMessage’s “Shared with You” feature, Health app upgrades including fall-risk metrics and data sharing, and improvements to Apple Maps with more transit details and AR walking directions were the best new features.

So much truth.

Son built a LEGO with a flag.

Today will be my 2,000th consecutive day of journaling.

The Filibuster Helps Nobody, and That Means You - WSJ Opinion

Eliminating the Senate filibuster would end the freedom of America’s political innocents. The lives that political nobodies spend playing, praying, fishing, tailgating, reading, hunting, gardening, studying and caring for their children would be spent rallying, canvassing, picketing, lobbying, protesting, texting, posting, parading and, above all, shouting.

I bought 30 cedar planks from Lowe’s on May 25th to be delivered to my house tomorrow. I paid $7.32 per board.

I just checked the price: they’re now selling for $11.57 each. That’s a 58% price increase in four weeks.

Buckle up, America.

I woke up just before midnight with a bad dream about a home invasion.

As I got back into bed and the thoughts started to cloud up, I remembered my mindfulness training and was able to quiet things down in just a few minutes.

Nice tools to have!

I’d set an informal deadline to publish something in September. I didn’t think I was going to make it, but all of the sudden, it’s possible again!

Colorado Lets Cities Set Their Own Gun Laws, and Boulder Plans to Move Quickly - WSJ

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation Saturday making Colorado the first state to repeal what is known as a pre-emption law.

This is terrible. Pre-emption laws dramatically reduce the burden on ordinary people who seek to engage in a hobby and do so legally. This is a recipe for innocent people with no ill intent to get jammed up.

Equal protection under the law is best fulfilled when a citizen has one set of rules to follow, not a patchwork depending on what city they’re in.