Chet Collins

When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. (John 20:6-7)

Annual reminder that Jesus’ first priority after rising from the dead was to make his bed.

Credit Card Rewards Are Heading Toward a Crisis - WSJ

“High-FICO cardholders on average earn money with the use of reward cards while low-FICO cardholders on average lose money,” they wrote. Overall, the study found that rewards cards drove a $15 billion annualized “redistribution” from low-score to high-score consumers.

In other words, poor people are the ones paying the rewards bar tab for rich people.

Mike Lindell Draws Sword, Cuts Off Ear Of Officer Attempting To Arrest Trump - Babylon Bee

“There, good as new!” Trump told Officer Sam Malchus. “Even better than new, if you can believe it. You probably have super sonic hearing now. All thanks to me, your favorite president!”

Pandora’s Donald Trump Prosecution - WSJ Opinion

The danger for America is the precedent this prosecution sets. Mr. Bragg is busting a political norm that has stood for 230 years. Once a former President and current candidate is indicted, some local Republican prosecutor will look to make a name for himself by doing the same to a Democrat. U.S. democracy will be further abused and battered. Mr. Bragg, the provincial progressive, is unleashing forces that all of us may come to regret.

Elon Musk’s Move to Monetize Twitter’s Blue Check Mark Riles Celebrities - WSJ

Twitter Inc.’s plan to remove legacy blue check marks for verified accounts heralds an end to a longtime social-media status symbol and is prompting complaints from some of the platform’s celebrity contributors concerned about potential impersonation.

Poor Blue Checks!!

The FDIC’s Sweetheart Bank Deal for SVB - WSJ Opinion

The losers in this sweetheart deal will be other banks (and their customers) that will have to pick up the estimated $20 billion cost to replenish the deposit insurance fund. That’s about 15% of the entire fund. By comparison, the 214 bank failures between 2011 and 2022 cost the fund $12.4 billion.

Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan Faces Fresh GOP Resistance - WSJ

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, called the GOP effort “callous and uncaring” and promised to oppose it. 

Says the man who just spent $6T that we don’t have?

Democrats Vow To Arrest As Many Political Opponents As It Takes To Defeat Fascism - Babylon Bee

“Fascism is a clear and present danger in this country,” began Senator Chuck Schumer, “and the only way to defeat it is with a corrupt, all-powerful police state that can imprison anyone who disagrees with us politically. If we don’t do this, fascism will win.”

Few people know this, but “Walmart” is an acronym for “every cart is broken.”

🛒

Donald Trump Grand Jury Is Called Off for Wednesday - WSJ

In case you’ve ever wondered why grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret.

All this “will they?” “Won’t they?” is prejudicial to the defendant. Then, if there’s no indictment, the target gets tarred for no good reason.

It’s kind of poetic that 15 years of financial regulatory decisions have only served to ignite the current crisis.

What Gets Lost When You Rescue Markets - WSJ

The attempt to eradicate failure from the financial system, of course, is part of modern society’s broader push to make life itself riskless and idiot-proof, with indestructible baby strollers, child-resistant drug packaging, almost self-driving cars and shoe removal at airport security.

Remarks by President Biden on Maintaining a Resilient Banking System and Protecting our Historic Economic Recovery - The White House

Third, investors in the banks will not be protected.  They knowingly took a risk and when the risk didn’t pay off, investors lose their money.  That’s how capitalism works.

It’s amusing how the administration loves to trash investors as if they’re evil fat cats.

Silicon Valley Financial Group and Signature Bank were both part of the S&P 500. So if you have an S&P 500 index fund/etf, a total market index fund, or target date retirement funds, you got wiped out.

This is the wisdom of diversification, but it’s so odd that the President is flippant about these losses when most of the shareholders are just normal teachers, firefighters, and engineers investing in their 401k.

Even more perplexing is that all of the uninsured depositors who were saved are the real fat cats of finance, Venture Capital.

SVB, Signature Bank Depositors to Get All Their Money as Fed Moves to Stem Crisis - WSJ

The government’s bank-deposit insurance fund will cover all deposits at the two banks, rather than the standard $250,000. Federal regulators said any losses to the government’s fund would be recovered in a special assessment on banks and that the U.S. taxpayers wouldn’t bear any losses.

“Special assessment on banks” is code for a one-time additional charge to all FDIC insured banks. In other words, all US banks will kick in to cover the uninsured depositors.

Banks will then turn around and pass this mandated cost-of-doing-business on to their customers in the form of higher interest rates, higher fees, and lower deposit rates.

Genius! We must all band together and save the start-ups who knew they were uninsured, but bravely carried on into the great unknown.

Investor Relieved He Pulled Money Out Of Crypto And Put It In The Bank For Safekeeping - Babylon Bee

“Really dodged a bullet there,” said Mr. Sandlin. “Cryptocurrency was getting too risky. You never know when one of these currencies will just suddenly go under.”

Ukraine Asks Merrick Garland To Leave As They Already Have Enough Corrupt Government Officials - Babylon Bee

Sources say the Attorney General stammered in response, citing his lengthy rap sheet which included sending the FBI after parents who protest at school board meetings, sending militarized police units to pro-life protestors' homes, and investigating “radical Catholics.”

Biden’s ESG Veto Is Revealing - WSJ Opinion

The rule would drive more savings into ESG funds that typically charge higher fees by letting retirement sponsors offer them as default options in 401(k) plans. Workers can opt out of default plans but usually don’t. Why isn’t Mr. Biden lambasting ESG funds for charging “junk fees”?

To Catch Up On Today’s News, Man Just Reads 2-Year-Old Posts On Conspiracy Blog - Babylon Bee

“When I did some research, I realized all the conspiracy theorists were exactly two years ahead of the media in reporting the facts,” said Rorch while pulling up IlluminatiWatch.com and searching old posts for current updates on politics, culture, and international affairs.

Tweetbot and Twitterrific updated with option to opt-out of subscription refund – Six Colors

it’s also kind of awkward, given that the money comes out of the pockets of those independent app developers like Tapbots and The Iconfactory, who got just as much of the short end of the stick as their users—if not more so. So for both apps there’s also an option to opt out of the refund.

It’s easy to feel sympathy for these app developers put out of business overnight, but that’s the inherent danger building a business that’s entirely reliant upon one client. Small businesses all over the country have the same problem, go out of business, and get no sympathy.

Unpopular opinion: pro-rated refunds mean that the customer pre-paid for a year of service. The fact that the business assumed that those users would stay a full year and not be due a refund (and already spent that revenue) is not the customer’s fault. It’s a cash flow planning error.

At the end of the day, this was a risky business model and it’s not a surprise that it failed.

Senate Votes 50-46 to Reverse ESG Rule for Retirement Funds - WSJ

Advocates say that addressing climate change, improving corporate governance and encouraging diversity can boost profits.

The data says ESG is another way for Wall Street to fleece the retail investor. ESG funds are proven to be more expensive and deliver lower returns than their peers. Also, no one agrees on was ESG is.

ESG is a marketing play by a desperate industry that got run over by ultra-low cost index funds that deliver market returns. Allowing them into 401k plans will leave American workers with less money in retirement.