Chet Collins

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.

Navy to rename USS Chancellorsville for former slave Robert Smalls - Task & Purpose

Implementing the Naming Commission’s renaming plan is expected to cost the Defense Department roughly $62.5 million, according to the commission’s final report.

Biden’s Regulatory Deluge - WSJ Opinion

The Constitution grants the power to make laws to Congress, not agencies. But in calendar 2021, Mr. Crews notes, agencies issued 3,257 rules, including 105 last-minute Trump rules, while Congress passed 143 laws. Last year they added another 3,168 rules in the Federal Register to go with 247 laws passed by Congress. That’s 13 rules from unelected agencies for every one law from elected legislators.

The Gaslighting of East Palestine - WSJ Opinion

Today’s fear is the price Americans are paying for the public-health authorities’ response to Covid. So many things experts claimed in the name of science—from the efficacy of masks to the shortcomings of natural immunity—turned out not to be true. The result is East Palestine, where many ask why they should now believe authorities who assure them the air and water are safe.

Biden Draws Distinction Between Classified Documents Found at His Homes and Trump’s - WSJ

He was apparently referring to a widely circulated photo showing documents that federal agents had laid out; the image didn’t represent how Mr. Trump kept the papers.  

This is the first time I’m getting this information.

Pentagon Spent At Least $1.5 Million on Missiles to Down Three High-Altitude Objects - WSJ

That figure is only for the four AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles used to bring down the objects over Alaska, Canada’s Yukon territory and Lake Huron. It doesn’t include the cost for Navy, Coast Guard, Alaska National Guard and Canadian forces to search for the debris, which likely will add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost, the officials said.

Oh, and oops, we didn’t find anything.

And everyone gets to keep their jobs!

The flights used to spot the balloons and eventually shoot them down aren’t part of the cost estimates because the U.S. military considers the flights part of its pilots’ training and has already budgeted those flight hours, the defense officials said.

Yup, just a little unplanned scramble and live-fire exercise outside of designated ranges and airspace. Just your classic, garden variety training flight.

Donald Trump Visits Ohio Train-Derailment Site, in Early Salvo of 2024 Race - WSJ

President Biden was briefed on conditions in East Palestine while he was rallying Europe to Ukraine’s aid in Warsaw, Poland, while former President Donald Trump visited the disaster site Wednesday afternoon.

This derailment happened more than two weeks before Biden left the country. He hasn’t been to the site because he’s consciously chosen not to go. The Transportation Secretary will be there 20 days after the derailment, but didn’t announce a trip until after Trump came and left.

This is why Trump won in 2016, and why he’s still a contender. Politicians are briefed from afar, appearing cold and aloof. Trump is unafraid to get up close and personal and comes off as compassionate and engaged.

Lately the narrative has been the derailment is Trump!s fault because he cancelled an Obama-era rule about train braking systems.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board has said that the brake rule wouldn’t have applied to the derailed Norfolk Southern train.

A narrative that changes the story but is completely irrelevant to the facts.

This exact series events is the quintessential behavior of the political class that put Trump in office and they’re laying the groundwork to do it all over again.

Crypto Still Draws Everyday Investors Hoping to Strike It Rich - WSJ

Some individual investors’ enduring enthusiasm for crypto stems in part from a sense that traditional routes to wealth are blocked off, say investors and researchers who study their behavior. Those everyday investors say that those paths, such as earning income, investing long-term in stocks, and buying real estate, seem less accessible and less lucrative than crypto, even with its significant risks.

Working a job and investing for the long term is less accessible than being a crypto bro?

Sixth Grader Swears His Science Homework Was Blown Up By A Sidewinder Missile - Babylon Bee

Though Jared had never been a problem student, his teacher found his outlandish excuse difficult to believe. “I’ve been a schoolteacher for over 30 years,” said Carla Riley. “I’ve heard just about every excuse there is, but this one about the United States Air Force shooting down a sixth-grade science project really takes the cake.”

The Junk Economics of ‘Junk-Fee’ Politics - WSJ Opinion

There’s no such thing as a free financial product. If regulators limit one source of revenue, businesses will find another to cover their costs. That is one lesson from the Dodd-Frank Act, which limited debit-card fees that banks charge retailers for using their network. As a result, banks increased overdraft fees.

Super Bowl Flyover Featuring All Female Pilots Running 20 Minutes Late - Babylon Bee

“Believe me, we will step on the gas and show everyone some woman power just as soon as we can! Until then - wait, hold on now - did we all just show up in the same flight outfit??” At publishing time, the team pushed back their arrival another ten minutes after one of the pilots burned out her landing gear taxiing with the parking brake on.