The Dime💰: Don't Blame the FED. The Money was never yours to begin with.

Janet Yellen. Former Head of The Federal Reserve. I miss her 😔

I want to start this post off by apologizing. I’m sorry that this post is going to be a flashback to 4th-grade social studies. It’s necessary. Not because we never learned the material, but because we have to view something that makes us upset from the context of 4th-grade social studies. 

If you attended 4th-grade social studies in New York State it was probably your first brush with the three branches of government. The legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. You were probably taught that the legislative branch makes and votes on the laws, the executive executes the laws by signing it into law and promising to execute them, and the judicial branch interprets the laws and declares them constitutional or unconstitutional. The basic premise here is that one particular branch of government can’t do another branch of government’s job. Congress can’t execute laws or interpret laws, the President (the executive) can’t write laws or interpret them, the Judges can’t write laws or execute them. Well in finance we have the same thing. 

The Treasury Department is an arm of the executive branch. Its job is to manage government revenue, collect taxes, and police the actions of money. That’s why the logo of the Treasury Department looks like a damn police badge. As part of its job of managing government revenue, the Treasury Department has the power to issue bonds. These are called Treasury Bonds. The Treasury Department issues these bonds when the government needs money. The government may need money to pay for the execution of a new law that was written and passed by Congress (the legislative branch) and signed by the President (the executive branch). When the Treasury Department wants to borrow, they need investors to provide them with cash. Those investors can be you and me, or they can be other countries (like China), they can be anyone who believes that the United States will be better in the future and wants to invest in it. It’s important that you stick with me because the information I’ve provided so far is going to be very important for understanding what’s to come. 

Historically, every country has had a weird relationship with banks. You can read as far back as the Torah or the Old Testament Bible, that people hated banks (or bankers). Usury was made illegal (and immoral), people hated tax and debt collectors, people hated going to debtors prisons, people always hated paying interest. The United States is no different. When you have a country as large as ours and you have a system of money (or anything else of value) you’re going to need a banking system. Banking is a practice that has existed since the beginning of time. When you have many banks across a large area it is likely that interest rates will be significantly different because of a number of reasons. 

1.    The population is different based by region.

2.    The incomes/natural resources in a particular area vary.

3.    There are more or less available banks in a particular region vs another.

Because of these reasons, all major governments in this world found that it would be useful to have a central bank. Literally, every major country in this world has a central bank. In the United States, our central bank is called The Federal Reserve Bank. In a previous post I provided some of the responsibilities of the Federal Reserve Bank. One of the responsibilities I did NOT mention was its role in regulating all of the banks within our banking system. It makes clear sense that they would regulate all of the banks, it is the Central Bank. Now just because it is the central bank, doesn’t mean it has unlimited power. Actually it’s power is limited. 

The Federal Reserve’s powers are limited to it’s relationships to banks and banks only. The Federal Reserve has the power to raise or lower the lowest interest rates (which effectively regulates the lowest interest rates all banks can lend at). This either increases or lowers the money supply we have in our country because it will push regular banks to either lend out more money or lend out less money. The Federal Reserve also regulates how much banks can lend to others using your money and mine. This is what we in finance call the “Reserve Requirement” which effectively means how much cash banks should have in reserve for each account they hold. Until yesterday the reserve requirement was 10%. Today it is 0%. This means banks can use all of the money you have in your account to lend to people for interest. The goal is to ensure that banks will use as much money as possible to lend to others at a time when they most need it. Like right now with COVID-19 (Coronavirus). 

This is straight from the Federal Reserve Banks “Reserve Requirements” page.

To stimulate the economy the Federal Reserve relaxes its regulations on the banks to push them to lend more money to us. Another way the Federal Reserve stimulates the economy is by lending money to the United States. It does this by (you guessed it) buying Treasury Bonds from the Treasury Department. The Federal Reserve also stimulates the economy by buying bonds directly from banks (such as mortgage bonds). The Fed (Federal Reserve) also buys mortgage bonds from banks created by The Two Branches of government (Legislative & Executive) (Fannie Mae is an example). All so that the Two Branches can have extra cash to pay for social services (like welfare, or industry bailouts). 

So the next time you see The Federal Reserve Bank dish out $2.2 Trillion, don’t say “They should have given us the money directly”, they don’t have the ability to, that’s the job of the Two Branches (The Legislative and Executive). If you want money directly in the mail, call your local Congressman and Senator, DON’T CALL OR BLAME THE FED. They couldn’t give us the money even if they wanted to, it’s beyond their power. 

So what’s next? I think the Treasury Department WILL send checks directly to you. Yes, YOU. This is the most rare of occasions and I don’t know when this is going to happen but the US has never been in a state where NO ONE CAN leave their homes to go to work. The pressures on businesses are large. The only logical position here is to send EVERY Adult Money. 

That’s it for today’s edition of The Dime💰. 

Don’t be stingy with the 🏀. Pass it to a friend.

The Dime💰: Special Edition - The Crash of The Century

This post is a partial analysis of what’s affecting markets. The other portion is in The Black List archives. Any inquiries about The Black List, please email carl@raisingbenjamin.com

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Okay. So the last two weeks have been INSANE. There is no other word to describe it. I’ve been stuck studying for the Bar exam and the MPRE (Ethics exam required for a law license) and I got your DM’s, The Black List has been BOOMIN so my free time has been spent in there. I dropped some hot takes on twitter (@cjoeblack), but now that some of the heat has passed. Here’s today’s (a special edition) of The Dime💰.

I saw markets taking an upcoming beating due to companies taking on too much debt (especially US Shale), I saw the FED getting stretched out because they were flooding the repo markets with cash to make sure financial institutions lend to each other at a desired rate, I even saw China having to take steps to end the Trade War because of African Swine Fever, BUT NEVER IN MY LIFE DID I EVER SEE THIS CORONAVIRUS BEING THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK.

WOWWWWWWW. 

So today the Stock market posted its largest losses since Black Monday in 1987. Markets across the board fell a whole 7%. That’s BROLIC.

This week markets had to hit the “circuit breaker” TWICE. The purpose of hitting the “circuit breaker” is to basically manage stock order execution and to allow trading to balance out.

Like I taught y’all (too long ago) there are buyers and sellers. For every seller there’s a buyer. So if there are a shit ton of sellers we need to organize the sales and identify if there are buyers for that sale. That’s what the “circuit breakers” are for. Some folks think it’s a cheat code for the market in general. The orders are always delayed so it’s not really cheating. But psychologically I think it’s a way for the stock exchange to really make people chill the f*ck out and reconsider what they’re doing.

Sometimes we just need a minute to breathe.

So what caused this?

Yes, it was the Coronavirus (I call it “The Roni”).

As we’ve discussed through #MoneyMail, everything in the economy is connected. If a school closes, a farm loses a client for milk (and other foods), the electric company loses profit because the lights aren’t on, the gas company loses profit because the heat/stoves aren’t on, bus drivers have no kids to take to school, the oil company (gas station) loses money at the pump and so on AND SO ON.

So you and I see “work remote” as lit because we get to stay home, others see “work remote” as HELL ON EARTH.

You should be looking at your investments that way.

“Work remote” means that a new class of companies are going to thrive while another set of companies are going to not thrive as much. Some will hurt more than others but just know, this economy gonna hit different.

Also, there’s gonna be a bunch of stocks that’s gonna get lit off the panic and the increase in medical supplies, but in the mean time stocks gonna get they ass beat, because hey… that’s the game.

So during the process of the economy “hitting different” we’re gonna see a recession.

Yes, a recession, caused by the Coronavirus.

Like we stated, a closing means a bunch of attached jobs and companies lose money. So you’re def gonna see that reflect heavily.

Does this mean you’re going to lose your job? I can’t say that broadly, I don’t even know what all of y’all do.

We know the MLB, NHL, NBA is suspended which means commercial ad prices for media networks are going to take a hit, food & beverage suppliers for arenas are going to get hurt, bus drivers, electric companies, gas companies and other companies that supply that ecosystem all gonna get snuffed OD by that. Those jobs gonna get affected for sure. Now use this thought process for every single company that “closes” or is affected by a “closed” business. This is systemic.

Now what do companies usually do in times of trouble? They borrow money to see the time through.

But here’s the kicker…

Companies have already been borrowing too much damn money and to make things worse— because the ENTIRE economy is feeling the steam off this Coronavirus, EVERYONE is trying to borrow money AT THE SAME TIME.

So now we have stress in the credit markets.

This is an elite time to be a bond investor. It’s also a risky time, because YOU DON’T KNOW who is going to be able to pay you back because of this Coronavirus situation. We also don’t know how long this will last. This is why this whole thing feels like 2008. This is why markets are getting BRUTALIZED.

This is far from over so here’s a short recap:

• Coronavirus is going to put companies in a position to make way less money.

• Companies need to borrow money to see this time through.

• Companies have to pay their current debts AND need cash to make it through the storm.

• NO ONE knows which companies are going to be able to pay the NEW debts back if the loans are approved.

• EVERYONE IS TRYING TO BORROW AT THE SAME TIME AND NO ONE IS TRYING TO LEND BECAUSE THEY NEED THE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES.

Nightmarish times. But this isn’t only because of the Coronavirus. NOPE. Saudi Arabia and Russia are large oil producers and these wild boys decided to go into a price war.

Saudi Arabia decided that they’ll flood the streets with oil until Russia caves in which will make the price of oil (gas) drop but here’s the kicker… IF NO ONE IS OUTSIDE BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS THEN THERE’S LESS PEOPLE OUT THERE TO BUY OIL AND GAS.

So oil and gas? A MESS.

AIGHT, what do we do?

The answer to this is a lawyers favorite answer to everything…. IT DEPENDS.

If you have a job that’s at risk… Imma keep it a stack with you my g…. Put as much money as you can in your bank account for a rainy day. Cause it might actually get rainy.

If you’re invested… DON’T DO ANYTHING.

1.         It’s too early in the year to take that L and have to wait til next tax year to claim it.

2.         Think LONG TERM my g, we invest for years not for moments. Here’s a chart of how the market has done over the last 50 years. RELAX

If you don’t have a job that’s at risk (and you have money stacked like crazy)… If you have the stomach to risk money for the LONG TERM…

You need to start hunting.

I’m going to drop a few industries to begin your search and why (I can’t give you exact companies, I’d get jumped by the group chat). 

Medical devices

More people going to the hospital means more uses for medical devices, more medical supplies, were talking from masks to syringes, medical equipment etc. Now we already knew that more people would be visiting hospitals because the country is getting older (and of course Obamacare/State expansions of medicaid) but now with Coronavirus a lot more folks are going to be in there.

Consumer staples

We’re talking about products that every person needs in their house. Anti-bacterial soap, Purell, food, items that are necessary for purchase whether there is a Coronavirus or not. Since people will be spending more time at home (and likely cooking more) these types of items will either be purchased in store or delivered directly to the home at a higher pace than before. Something else to consider is the amount of revenue these consumer staple companies are earning due to panic buying of items.

Is there more? Yes, but it’s not for y’all. It’s for The Black List. Don’t be stingy with the 🏀though, pass this to a friend.

Remember: This is not investment or financial advice. Go see your financial advisor and get advice from them. This is for educational purposes only.

The Dime💰Weekly Recap 1/16

We Been At ALL TIME HIGHS ALL WEEK

What’s good y’all. Here’s your edition of The Dime 💰Weekly. It’s literally each Dime you got this week. If there’s anything you missed or just want to look at again, it’s here. Remember, don’t be stingy with this, pass it to a friend. (All the market updates have been removed from these so you can have just the stories that interested you.)

The Dime💰1/13

1. The Jobs Report gave us some more interesting data when you look at it more closely. Over the past year wages for people over 25 years old without a high school degree grew over 6% and almost 4% for those over 25 years old who went to college but didn’t finish. This is great news because it shows conditions for those who opted out of a college degree are starting to see higher checks. Teenagers are also seeing a bump in wages since Trump has become president. During the first 11 quarters (essentially almost 3 years) since the Trump presidency the median wage for teenagers has increased over 5%. Now I personally don’t credit Trump for all of this. He inherited a pretty good economy and didn’t really have to do much to keep the ball rolling. To compare, it’s like your parents left you a heavy trust fund of $1 Million and you end up earning another $500k on top of it. Yeah you didn’t blow it, but we all know the first Million is the hardest.

2. Speaking of Jobs and creating them, many non-tech companies are ramping up their venture capital investments which really is a shining light for entrepreneurs because it looks like the investment opportunities are becoming more plentiful. Many non-tech companies out there are searching for tech solutions to bring their systems into the new century. By not innovating they risk losing their competitive edge to new startups (which we’ve already seen happen with old taxi cab companies and Uber/Lyft). I think if this continues and more large companies invest in startups we might be able to see a substantial transfer of wealth. This is the beginning of something very interesting y’all. In the last two years, there have been over 500 venture capital deals with at least one corporate sponsor funding it. The finesse is growing. For my entrepreneurs out there building businesses, keep working.

3. While we’re on the subject of large companies paying out large amounts of breaddddd, manufacturing companies are starting to significantly increase their perks to get people to move to where their factories are. In the last 70 years people have moved less. A person stays in their home for a little over 13 years on average today even though back in the day it used to be 8 years. Also, when you count for population density, more people have been moving to big cities and staying there instead of moving to suburban or rural areas (where the factories are). The biggest hurdle is that relocating is insanely expensive which causes people to chill out and stay where they are. So to deal with these issues Manufacturers are paying relocation costs and adding a bonus on top to get you to move. They need to because there are over 500k factory jobs simply left open which is the most in 20 years. On top of paying for relocation costs and bonuses some manufacturing companies are even doing signing bonuses (even for jobs that pay by the hour). It’s crazy to see this happen but also it makes sense because unemployment is hanging around its lowest level in 50 years. For those who live in the city and are looking for a good paying job that will pay you up front… It’s something you should consider.

4. New laws in the European Union have forced financial firms to have to buy investment research from investment research companies. Whether you know it or not, investment research costs a pretty penny and can range from $5000 for one stock to $25000 or more for research on an entire sector. Because of the price tag and forced the new law, hedge funds and other trading firms have just been making trades on less and less research. Analysts are actually covering less stocks in Europe or in some cases they’re not covering some stocks at all. What’s been happening is that many of these Hedge Funds have been building their own research divisions inside their firms to circumvent the law and pay less for actual research. This creates a small opportunity for folks, jobs. Although this hurts the bottom line for banks in Europe, it definitely helps young grads who are looking to break into the industry and earn them some checks. From a market perspective though, lower research leads to less money for investment in a particular stock. This leads to larger price swings because people are either trading on geopolitical news or earnings reports on a stock. So if you’re an individual investor, you essentially have to pay for expert research or learn intimately about every single stock and industry on your own if you want to compete in the markets.

5. So the economic numbers are finally starting to settle in. It’s not official and its wayyyyy too early to tell but its looking like the Trade War with China didn’t have a LARGE effect on the US economy. Don’t say this to a farmer though, they might punch you in the face. Farmers were the ones who took the hardest hit because in some cases China is their largest, second-largest, or third largest client. The reason we didn’t feel it as much is that farming is a smaller portion of our economy and farming jobs only count for 2% of the US economy. Carmakers, furniture makers, and machine makers also got snuffed due to the Trade War. All of this caused their items for sale to cost about 3% more in the last two years. Farmers, on the other hand, lost $28 Billion in exports to China because of the war. Farmers had to borrow a shit ton of money and some of them even went bankrupt.

6. Due to rising push back from ALL OF US. Drugmakers are trying to figure out a new way to get paid. Instead of charging super high prices for access to medicines when someone is sick they are starting to rely on patient data to alter their pay models (so now it makes sense why Google went into the medical data business). Drugmakers are tying installment plans, subscriptions and value-based contracts that are tied to how much a drug helps a patient instead of the traditional “pay a brolic ass price for this drug or don’t get it”. Even though these models don’t lower the price of drugs but at least they’ll make them easier to pay for? I’m not sure how I feel about it yet so I’ll wait until these come to effect and see how it affects patients.

7. While we’re on the subject of human science, some Genetic databases (NOT 23andMe or ANCESTRY.COM) have been sharing their genetic data with law enforcement and they’ve been using that data to solve crimes. Third-party sites like GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA have been opening up their genetic data to law enforcement and companies like DNASolves have been actively creating portals to help cops. What’s even more interesting is that crimes have been solved using this data. An old case of 13 murders out in California was solved using DNA data from GEDmatch. To learn more about how these companies have been using your data (for law enforcement and otherwise) DM me or head over to @djsquared’s page and peep her TED Talk on the matter. If you’re out here doing some funny shit or committing crimes, you might not want to go looking for your family history dawg.

8. On January 1st, 2020 New York State’s bail reform came to effect. For those that aren’t familiar, most misdemeanors and most non-violent crimes have NO MORE BAIL attached to them. You get arrested, get processed, get a court date, and go home. This has been a subject of large debate in Albany and although Democrats overwhelmingly passed this law last year, some of them are starting to think…. maybe they went a little too far. Because of this some democrats are bringing amendments of the bill to the floor. Some of these amendments include attaching bail to hate crimes at any level, allowing judges to set bail based on how dangerous a criminal defendant is to their community, sex offenses, and drug sales (currently none of these crimes have bail set on them at the moment).

9. Tackling homelessness in New York City has encountered a new problem. Figuring out where the homeless can live. New York City tried a program where they would send people (those who qualified) from New York City to apartments out in Newark, NJ. Newark found out, got mad, passed a law to block the program, and sued the living hell out of New York City in Federal Court. Some people have reported that the relocated apartments have horrible conditions, they’re rodent-infested, there’s no heat or electricity and what’s worse is some New York City employees didn’t even inspect the apartments before placing people in them. Since then, the program has stopped. But now a new problem arises. A woman who is a domestic violence victim is saying that the Newark law blocking her from moving actually puts her life at risk because it’s easier for her abuser to find her if she is still in New York City. This entire ordeal really puts a spotlight on how complicated homelessness is to tackle.

The Dime💰1/14

1. Does it feel like the prices of items you’re buying are going up? That’s because they are fam. US Consumer inflation rose 2.3% to cap off the year 2019 which is up 0.4% from 1.9% the year before (2018). That means the price for some of the items you bought in the last year went up over 2%. We’re talking about food, dental care etc. What’s crazier is that on average prices for shelter (rent and home prices) went up 3.2%, as if the paying for the crib wasn’t high enough already. Make sure you’re saving a little more for those price increases coming 2020 and more importantly make sure you mention this when it comes to your salary increases in the coming months. Companies be acting funny when it comes to paying more money but once you hit them with the “inflation was 2.3% last year… why are you giving me only a 2% raise… That’s less than inflation>” then the conversation gets… a… little…… DIFFERENT.  A big reason why inflation increased at a faster rate in 2019 is that the Federal Reserve cut interest rates THREE TIMES. Cutting interest rates makes it cheaper to borrow money which by default adds more money to our financial system. The more money we add to our financial system the more money we have to buy the same or fewer items available, so that puts businesses in the prime position to raise their prices since they know we have the money to pay it.

2. While on the subject of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve (or the FED for short) added another $82 Billion to financial markets to continue their REPO operations (after adding over $100 billion last week). REPO is short for Repurchase agreements which money market firms and banks use to provide cash to each other. Here’s how it works… One person (let’s say a bank for this example) has treasury bonds but needs cash so that when you go to the ATM money will be there to come out. Another person wants to make interest off of the fact that the other person (the bank) needs cash. The bank will borrow cash from the other person and use the treasury bonds for collateral. These loans are usually done overnight and paid back the next day (or in a few days/weeks). REPOs are the backbone of our financial system because they allow banks to meet their regulatory requirements or simply just have enough cash to give us our money if/when we need it. It’s important to keep tabs on this because right now banks and money market dealers usually do these transactions with each other but have been charging way higher interest rates than the Federal Reserve wants because they are each short on cash. So now the Federal Reserve has to step in and provide that cash. They’ve been doing this heavy-handedly since September. Keep your eyes on this y’all.

3. If y’all have been flying Delta… Delta thanks you. Delta’s stock is up over 3% today because it just hit its 10th straight year of profit in the last quarter. That’s actually VERY impressive for an airline business. Historically airline businesses have been wishy-washy due to federal regulations, plane crashes and jet fuel prices. After analysis of what caused the profit, it was Y’ALL buying all these tickets to fly and visit friends and low oil prices which really helped their bottom line. Imagine not only keeping/increasing your sales but at the same time paying less money for your supply? DELTA IS HAVING THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES. Shoutout to those who own Delta stock. Bottles on you.

4. Speaking of profitable quarters, my homies at JPMorgan are having a field day too. The company reported a 9% increase in revenue and was able to dish out a profit of over $8 Billion. A strong economy has led to an increase in Mergers and Acquisitions which has helped JPMorgan’s investment banking unit. Every time you hear about a company getting bought, sold or merging, usually investment bankers have a hand in that deal helping spearhead the process. Usually, both the buy and the seller hires an investment bank to guide them through the deal to make sure that they’re getting a fair price. Investment bankers also help bring companies public (doing IPO’s). Since we’ve been seeing a lot of that lately it makes sense that JPMorgan (the country’s biggest bank) has been seeing their fair share of the action. I’m so mad that they’re having this much fun without me. Do y’all even miss me at all?

5. Since we’re on the subject of companies buying companies I just wanna let y’all know that Visa bought Plaid yesterday for $3.8 Billion in what is probably one of the most important internet deals in a long f*cking time. I like Plaid because it was a low-key big player that’s in everyone’s face but we don’t realize it. Plaid is the company that allows you to connect your banking information to any app. When you’re able to automate transactions because your bank is connected (through you entering your banking username and password) Plaid is the company that makes that possible. Plaid is one of the most important companies when it comes to facilitating payments on the web and now the world’s Payment GIANT Visa has just bought them. VISA JUST GOT THE LAST INFINITY STONE. For y’all that don’t understand how Visa’s business works, I’m going to break it down. Visa charges every merchant (a person who sells things) a fee for a transaction. They are the payment superhighway and they get a percentage of each transaction. The percentages vary but it can be around 2% per transaction sometimes. This is why every damn card either has Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. They are the MOB when it comes to payments. To get a better understanding of how payments work peep the next story.

6. Prepare for more environmental sustainability ETF’s because they coming. Blackrock (the world’s largest asset management firm) has decided to put climate change at the forefront of its decision-making. They’ve decided that they would be more critical of companies in how they handle environmental sustainability. They’re also going to be critical of them if they’re failing to report their climate effect numbers accurately. On top of that they’re going to lower their investments in coal producers and double the amount of ETF’s that address environmental, social, and governance problems. If these moves are going down, this will affect markets in a big way. This also creates an investment roadway for companies who have a focus on positive social or environmental impact so if you’re in that business keep your eyes open for more $$$ on the way.

7. People just ain’t taking the bus anymore because it’s too expensive and cities are finally getting the message. Cities like Lawrence, Massachusetts have decided to make riding the bus completely free (for two years) for some routes. After making them free they saw a 24% spike in ridership. Other cities are debating the free ridership model such as Olympia, Washington, Kansas City, Missouri, and Boston. Let’s hope this catches on and reaches New York. I’ve been requesting free fares for years and instead of raising taxes across the board to cover the cost. I personally don’t believe public transportation should be something that the public pays for.

8. Whoever owns Boeing stock… I’m sorry for you bro. Orders for Boeing have fallen to only 380 jets which is the lowest in 16 years. The brand got beat bad this year due to them rushing the 737 max process and the planes crashing due to it. To add insult to injury things got worse when it was discovered that they were deceiving regulators after spending so many years earning their trust. The stock has been paying for it in a brutal way. In the last year, the stock had reached as high as $446 a share and now it’s trading at the $330 range which is crazy. They just hired a new CEO so hopefully, things can change in the future and that can drive the stock price up.

9. The Amazon and FedEx beef is finally over. Amazon has lifted its ban on FedEx Ground shipping for Prime shipments. The ban has existed for a month after Amazon felt unsatisfied with FedEx’s delivery times (and possibly testing out its own delivery service as well) and FedEx’s stock took a beatingggggg. Right now FedEx stock is up above 2% since the news dropped and hopefully, it can pick up some more. This makes me worry about Amazon a little. Did they decide this because of the hurdles they’ve dealt with in building out a delivery business? Who knows. Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.

The Dime💰1/15

1. So what does the trade deal entail so far? Over the next two years, China has agreed that it will increase US imports by $200 Billion. These purchases will be in Manufactured goods, energy, services, and agriculture. China will also give the United States more access to its financial system (new investment opportunities are coming y’all) and will also provide more intellectual property protections for American Companies (less fake Apple products floating around China hopefully). Farmers are OD lit out this deal. They have been getting fried since the trade deal started and I know every damn farmer lookin at the TV like “It’s about time.”

2. In other news… Target isn’t providing good news right now. The holiday season was just not good to them AT ALL. They sold fewer toys and electronics during the holiday season which to me shows a bigger issue. The US Consumer just didn’t buy toys and electronics from them. The true numbers for me are coming from Amazon, if Amazon killed it in sales then I know where Targets money went which means Target has an even bigger problem. Much of my analysis on this comes from the fact that Target’s online sales rose 19% this holiday season which tells me consumers bought their shit online instead of in-store which means there’s a possibility that they didn’t find a deal they liked on Target and decided to type in Amazon.com and spend their money there. I don’t wanna get too ahead of myself though. All in all, shares fell over 6.5% today on the bad news. I also think investors overreacted so I’ll look deeper into the price to see if there’s a buying opportunity.

3. Remember the Goldman Sachs Malaysia scandal I told y’all about? Well, the total cost of that debacle finally came out in their earnings report and their profit fell like hell due to the legal costs of fighting the issue (gotta always be ready to take L’s off them Lawyers fees). The debacle cost them 13% of their 2019 profits (JESUS). Mind you they put away an extra $1 Billion to pay to settle the legal case with regulators. On top of that, they’re still negotiating with the US Department of Justice to plead guilty and settle on another $2 billion fine for violating anti-bribery laws. Looks like the Goldman Sachs CEO is going to have to do more overnight DJ gigs to make up for that loss because dawg this is nuts. Fundamentally though, the company had a decent 4th quarter. The investment bank had their second-best quarter in the history of the firm and their bond trading desk is actually improving. When you count in the fees for the fourth quarter though their profit fell 24%. The game is cold but Goldman finna stay on they grind.

4. Important news has to do with money but ain’t really money for real: 2019 was the second-hottest year in history. Ice caps are melting like ice cream in the middle of the summer y’all. I like wearing my jacket open in January and dressing fly as hell but I’m not sure if the price I want to pay for that is my life or y’all’s lives. Anti-climate change folks can talk all they want, this shit is real. To add to that, 10 of the hottest years on record have been in the last decade. This is data coming from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They have been tracking this shit since 1880. So just remember, just because it’s snowing outside your crib, doesn’t mean the world ain’t getting hotter.

5. The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (Robert Kaplan) issued a warning to us all. That the Federal Reserve pumping all that money every day into the financial markets is actually driving up risk-taking. This is a day after the New York Federal Reserve announced that it would possibly look into lending money directly to hedge funds for their Repo operations (the stuff I keep talking about every day). It’s about time someone spoke out on this because the Federal Reserve has been giving out money to banks and money market dealers everyday like the shit is fun coupons and it had me worried. Maybe it isssss time to worry a little. Now he’s not saying the Federal Reserve is doing a bad job, he’s just saying all this money might cause money market managers, hedge funds, banks, and other investors to take on higher amounts of risk because they know they have unlimited access to cash since the Federal Reserve wanna lend money out to people like they the Oprah giving out free cars (you get a loan, you get a loan, YOU GET A LOAN!). Stay tuned y’all, because once one Federal Reserve President publicly says something another Federal Reserve claps back and I’m here for ALL OF THE DRAMA.

6. US Producer prices issued their December report and prices are pushing higher (shoutout to inflation, I hate her sometimes I swear). The Department of Labor on a monthly basis produces a report called the “Producer-Price index” which measures the prices businesses get for their products or the services they provide. For the month of December is was up 0.1% from the month of November. Now when you look at the data from a yearly perspective business prices are up 1.3% which is 1% below inflation (2.3%) which is pretty decent since it’s not in lock-step but still gets me annoyed because as our money is becoming less valuable everything is still 1% more expensive than it was before. A lot of people are still digging themselves out of student debt we don’t need no damn inflation making the rest of our lives hard as hell.

7. If you live in New York Public Housing you probably realized something, there are less heating outages. Part of that is because this winter hasn’t been as cold as we expected it to be, but the other part is that NYCHA is trying. They’ve really been doubling their efforts in focusing on heat repairs and installing new technology to alert them if there is some sort of outage. Now this didn’t come out of the goodness of their hearts. The federal government actually mandated a maintenance plan and made sure that they followed it. This is coming as part of a settlement from a federal lawsuit that found that NYCHA wasn’t providing adequate heat in the first place and that they didn’t comply with federal regulations to protect kids from lead paint/poisoning in the the NYCHA developments.

8. Something cool is happening in New Jersey. Governor Murphy is working to train more New Jersey residents for High Tech Jobs (cheaper rent and job training? Shit I might move.). A new workforce development program by the New Jersey Governor has a goal of increasing the amount of workers in computer science and tech jobs for 2020 and beyond. His goal is to increase it by at least 10%. The Workforce plan is going to focus on Post-Secondary (college) students which is about 500,000 people in New Jersey which should help a lot since historically New Jersey has been a great state for both jobs and schools. Let’s see if this can be successful.

9. Heart disease is making a comeback. Younger people, more middle aged people, women and nonsmokers have been reported to have more strokes and heart attacks in recent years. This baffles me because everybody and they mother literally working out on instagram. Most of this is being driven by obesity and diabetes. In the year 2000 there were almost 800,000 deaths caused by heart disease which went down to about 600,000 deaths in 2009-2010 but now is shooting back up to about 650,000 going into 2020. Almost 40% of adults over 20 are obese and another 32% are overweight. To add to that 9.4% of people over 18 in the US have diabetes. Research in these areas used to be a top priority but then things slowed down of course because the deaths slowed down. I’m hoping this data pushes more doctors to jump back into this research and provide solutions to both the overall health community and us cause I’m not trying to see me or the homies fall victim to a stroke or heart attack or any cardiovascular issue at that.

The Dime💰1/16

1. Big News: Alphabet (Google’s parent company) just became the fourth US company to reach combined value of $1 Trillion. THATS HUGE YALL. The Fact that we have four companies reaching $1 Trillion in valuation is crazy. Four companies valued at a Trillion dollars is Four Trillion which in perspective is nuts because our entire US economy is worth $45 Trillion so four companies together is almost 10% of the entire US economy. That’s power. The other three of course are Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. This is incredible in many ways yo.

2. Speaking of big tech companies…. Facebook has decided to take a step back from selling advertising on WhatsApp. People have been upset about this move for a while and i’m glad that facebook listened. This was such a big deal that the actual creators of WhatApp left facebook. I’m guessing it’s a little late for Mark Zuckerberg to apologize but whatever. I understand why facebook wants to monetize though, they bought WhatsApp for $22 Billion… What did you expect? For it to not make money???? Facebook has decided to pivot to trying monetize off of enabling payments on the site and charging a small fee for the payment transactions. This is a pivot for facebook because Advertising counted for about 98% of its revenue in the third quarter of 2019.

3. Fiat Chrysler & Foxconn are teaming up to make a big splash in the electric vehicle industry. They not only want to produces electric vehicles but they also want to make a move into internet-connected vehicles. The split between Foxconn and Fiat will be 40/60 (40% for Foxconn and 60% for Fiat). For those who don’t know, Fiat Chrysler owns Jeep (the Wranglers & Cherokees) so it’s going to be interesting to see how these new vehicles will be in the future. Fiat’s focus is China right now but I wouldn’t be surprised if moves were made for the American market as well.

4. Since we’re on the subject of transportation, a Federal Judge blocked a part of California’s new Gig Economy law. The portion of the law the judge blocked surrounds the enforcement of the law on truckers. The issue here is that the California law can be pre-empted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. Pre-emption is the federal governments ability to essentially over power a states rule due to the fact that a federal law exists to regulate it. The federal government has the option to pre-empt a state law. For example, if the federal government regulates censorship on TV and a state makes a law on censorship, the federal government can oppose the states law since the federal government already regulates it. It’s like when the CEO of a company makes a rule and your boss makes another rule that opposes the CEO’s rule, the CEO can come to your boss and be like “Nah fam, I got this. I’m the big dawg.”

5. The United States Treasury will issue new 20 year treasury bonds during the first half of this year. Usually the Treasury bonds issued are ones below 1 year (Treasury bills) and the 2 year, 3 year, 7 year and 10 year bond. When the US Treasury issues a bond of this length it’s because the federal government needs long term money. The last decade there’s been a bunch of bonds issued 10 years and below but because of this it has pushed the interest rates for short term bonds up and the interest rates of long term bonds down. Because of this it has been more advantageous to invest in the government (Buy Treasury Bonds) for the short term instead of the long term. This is the first time that the US Treasury is reintroducing a bond into the market since 1986. So this is very very serious and the Federal Government really needs this long term bread.

6. A real estate investment group named Harbor Group just did a $1.85 Billion deal to buy over 13,000 apartments across the south and midwest. Some states in that portfolio are Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Missouri and Texas. The average monthly rents in the apartments are $1010 a month and 95% of the apartments are ALREADY OCCUPIED. Think about this… the monthly rent on this deal is $12,473,500 A MONTH. That shit is bonkers. Shoutout to them. I hope the rental markets stay healthy so they can see their way through. A move like this inspires me to figure out new ways to get into the rental game but with an even lower amount of risk. Soon i’ll be writing a newsletter about getting into a real estate investing from the apartment perspective so hit the link in my bio and sign up for the newsletter if you’re interested.

7. Speaking of rentals, strip malls have been suffering the last few years due to the fact that many department & retail stores have been closing but there is a small light in the tunnel….. More community centered companies. Strip centers have been flourishing due to Grocery stores, convenience stores, and nail salons. The positioning is called “Grocery Store anchored” strip malls. You give a large amount of retail space to a big grocery store chain and allow complimentary businesses to open near them. The prices of Strip mall centered REIT’s (Real Estate Investment Trusts) have increased over 8% in the last year. Now of course it’s not huge in comparison to the rest of the market but it’s still progress compared to how they got their teeth punched in during other years. Let’s hope that activity can continue to grow in 2020.

8. People always thought that after a certain age you wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage and now that old adage is starting to shift. Banks are starting to give more mortgages to retirees who have fixed incomes from their pensions or 401k’s. A federal law has banned discrimination of mortgages based on age (The Equal Credit Opportunity Act) and banks are starting to really ramp up their lending to retirees. Banks are allowing retirees to use their investment portfolios as collateral along with other assets. Now I don’t know how I feel about it because gaining income in that age group is difficult but there is are a few bright spots. One bright spot is that less retirees will end up alone in nursing homes and closer to places they are more familiar with (especially with visiting home nursing services). Another bright spot and a slight bump in generational wealth. Because retirees are older in age they will have more assets to pass down to their children (and grandchildren) when the die. Do I think a retiree should get a mortgage? The answer is…. it depends.

9. Trades of ADR’s (American Depository Receipts) spiked in the markets today. American Depository Receipts are essentially the American version of a stock in another country. For example if a company in Brazil wants American investors to invest in them using American dollars in American markets they can issue an ADR. The S&P/BNY Mellon index (which measures ADR’s) rose 0.3% just today. The European, Asian, and Latin American indexes all rose by the same percentage. Either this was a small group of traders or hella investors are flocking toward investing overseas. If the latter is true, it looks like investors are seeing higher growth overseas. I’m going to keep tracking this activity to see if this trend continues.

The Dime💰1/17

1. Although we have hella confidence we do have some areas that may make me feel a little worried.  For example, the number of job openings fell by 10.8% between November 2018 and November 2019 which tells me that employers are starting to scale back (or at least reconsider) the amount of staff that they need. Usually when job openings fall that means that job seekers have less leverage because there are less available jobs for them to choose from. So naturally with less available jobs, salary negotiations tend to change and companies start to have more of the upper hand. Even though we’ve had this drop in job openings the economy still seems to look good but I’d like to see the amount of openings pick back up so workers can negotiate higher salaries or have more job options.

2. The prices of wheat are up 25% from September. Crazy right? Well that’s because farmers haven’t planted this little wheat in more that 100 years. Some of this is due to the fact that Russia has become the worlds most dominant wheat supplier period. Because of Russia’s dominance farmers have decided to pivot to Corn and Soybeans (they’re more profitable) which leads to less wheat planted thus….. a higher price for wheat. Another reason for higher priced wheat is because Australia has been dealing with both a drought and wildfires which has limited their ability to even participate in selling wheat in markets. Weather also played a huge role in the decrease in amount of wheat plantings. So if you’re at the super market and wheat bread isn’t 2 for 5 anymore? You know its because the wheat markets gettin hit hard right now.

3. The United States Attorney General William Barr is putting pressure on Apple to unlock the phones of people who are under investigation/are arrested by law enforcement. Apple has not only made it difficult to unlock them but has actually added extra privacy protections (such as encryption) to their phones so that law enforcement has an even more difficult time in unlocking phones. Law enforcement states that the difficulty of unlocking these phones is extending cases such as child sex abuse and terrorism. He not only pressed Apple but he pressed Facebook too. If y’all out here doing funny sh*t, keep your phones out of it fam.

4. If you were considering visiting Cuba, you better do it fast. The State Department in Washington stated that public charter flights are suspended from nine Cuban airports. Public charter flights are still permitted to land in Havana though. The reason behind this is that the Trump Administration believes that Cuba is using some of its revenue to fund Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro (who the US isn’t really feeling right now). Limiting the amount of charter flights to Cuba they feel would lower their revenue. What I do know is that flights to Havana are about to skyrocket because now it’s one of the only entry points to Cuba. So if you’ve been thinking about it… I’d recommend putting it on high priority.

5. China’s economy is slowing. In 2019 the economy grew by 6.1% which is the lowest it’s grown in almost 30 years. Wild right? Much of this has been caused by the trade war but also other issues such as low birth rates, a debt filled real estate market which hasn’t seen a huge amount of revenue yet, and consumers are also starting to spend less money period. Although these issues exist certain areas are still bright for Chinese investment. Pharma products, new technology, cars, and food are areas where you can really get some cheddar if you’re expanding out to China. Economists are projecting an even lower growth rate for China in 2020 (6% flat) but that doesn’t mean money can’t be made there.

6. The USDA is rolling back Michelle Obama’s favorite lunch policies and are now relaxing the rules which may lead kids to choosing less healthy meals (like pizza and burgers) over healthy ones. The Obama rules prioritized having a vegetable heavy meal selection at schools and less saturated fats, sodium, and milk products. The rules were originally set in place to reduce childhood obesity. I bet food companies are happy as hell that these rules are being relaxed. According to their data the USDA states that 31% of vegetables served in the school year of 2014-2015 were wasted and they want schools to have a wider variety of foods so that less food is wasted.

7. Spotify is in early talks to buy “The Ringer” which is super popular media website started by former ESPN commentator Bill Simmons. With their big shift into podcasting it makes sense to buy The Ringer because that media site has over 30 podcasts. This would really get things lit for Spotify when it comes to sports audio. It’s still too early to know if the deal is going to go through but to provide some insight Spotify spent $400 Million last year to cop three podcast companies and snatch up over 20 deals for exclusive or original content. Spotify making moves and coming for Apple. Apple dead better watch they back lol.

8. Midsize tech firms are starting to speak out and are telling lawmakers that Google, Amazon, and Apple are making it difficult to compete in the market. Sonos, PopSockets, Basecamp, and Tile Inc have told an antitrust subcommittee that Google, Amazon, and Apple use different strategies to beat back efforts of tech companies that enter their space. They stated that these companies have become gatekeepers in the internet space and will limit your ability to make money if you step foot on their turf. This is a big statement because the Antitrust department of the Federal Government has been working on building cases to limit the size of Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook. It’s going to be interesting to see how this beef develops.

9. The Electoral College is being challenged in the Supreme Court in two different cases and things are gonna get spicy. The Supreme Court is about to consider whether presidential electors can vote for a candidate that has not won a states popular vote. Many of us know that President Trump didn’t win the popular vote but became President by winning the electoral college. For those who don’t know how the electoral college works, essentially every state has a number of “electors”. We usually don’t know who these people are and they usually are based with a party (usually the states major party). Even if the majority of the population in a state votes for one candidate, if the electors vote for another candidate then the electoral college points go to that candidate. You can’t win the presidency without winning the electoral college. Some states (Colorado) have issued state laws that automatically give all of the states electoral college votes to the winner of the popular vote. The decision of the Supreme Court on these cases can drastically take away power from the electoral college (or even functionally render them useless). 

That’s it for this week’s edition of The Dime💰 Weekly. Don’t be stingy with the 🏀, pass it to a friend. See you tomorrow.

The Dime Weekly Recap 1/6

I know… It’s been a while. Been experimenting with new ways to release this and came down to the fact that this is indeed the most efficient way to do it. But less talk. More Money. Here’s your recap of The Dime for the first full week of the New Year. Happy 2020 y’all. May your checks be enormous, investments be plentiful, and may you reach nirvana, peace, or whatever you call true happiness.

The Dime 1/6

 Markets

1.          Markets: After rallying last year and early this year, Markets have been rocky the last few days since the Iran drone strike that killed one of its high generals (I’ll address this soon). Today the Dow closed up about 68 points (0.24%), the Nasdaq closed up about 50 points (0.56%), and the S&P 500 closed up 11 points (0.35%).

2.          Uber has expanded its business to bus ticket sales. Uber has launched “Uber Transit” which allows Uber users to buy tickets for buses on its app. Uber will also tell users when their bus is coming, how long it will take to arrive at their destination, as well as providing the same information for other methods of transportation. Uber is essentially trying to become the center of transportation. Currently, the head of Uber Transit has stated that there is no charge to the transportation entities it serves. It has officially launched in Las Vegas and hopes to move into other cities before the end of the year.

3.          More and More investors are trading options instead of trading traditional stocks. If you’re subscribed to the Raising Benjamin Newsletter you learned about this a while back when we covered “Derivatives”. Options are cheaper than investing in stocks and are usually used to hedge your investments (limit your losses), but individual investors have started using them to gain earn more money by making bets on stock movements and paying less for them. To add to this many online brokerages have been softly promoting options trading to their users because it makes them more money. The spreads between options are higher and you can charge additional fees for trading options versus stocks (which at this point are FREE to trade). Be careful out here y’all, don’t get caught wilding with these options. Invest smart, don’t be greedy.

Food

4.          Some developments in the Cocoa industry in West Africa. If you remember from our previous Dimes…. Ghana and The Ivory Coast have been charging a “living cost differential” fee of $400 on top of the current price of Cocoa. For context, Ghana and The Ivory Coast together trade 60% of the world’s Cocoa. With this power, Ghana and The Ivory Coast have decided to create their own trading group that some other governments and businesses are calling “COPEC”. This name stems from “OPEC” which represents the group of countries who together form the largest oil trading bloc. This play by Ghana and The Ivory Coast is HUGE and will influence the prices of chocolate for a LONG TIME. Although the price of chocolate is going to increase, I look forward to how much this agreement positively influences their economies. Stay tuned y’all.

5.          Home sales in wildfire areas in California have slowed due to the difficulty of prospective buyers to get insurance on those homes. The lack of insurance contracts has played a role in many of them backing out of the home-buying deal in general. Insurers are looking at these wildfire regions as high risk and are charging significantly higher amounts to insure these homes. This could lead to trouble for California because large regions of the state have suffered wildfires this year and with insurance companies reacting that way it may lead to insurers raising prices on towns and cities that are near these regions. Also, the insurance costs might actually force the sellers to lower their prices dramatically to factor the costs in.

6.          TikTok’s growth has caused it to become a major player in the social media space and with this comes politics. In recent months TikTok has been flooded with political content from users and it appears that it will continue as the Presidential Campaign continues to take off for 2020. Specifically, TikTok will become a battleground for the youth vote due to the fact that out of their 24 Million active users 42% of them are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. I’m already annoyed because I know all these old ass Presidential candidates are going to be on TikTok talking that “vote for me” shit. Also, I’m just tired of everything being so politicized. Remember when the internet was just jokes about our lives? Now everything has a political spin in it. Smh for much for good times.

IRAN

7.          OK… So we all know what happened with Iran’s General. I’m not going to share my opinion on it because tbh my political opinion doesn’t matter. What you really want to know is “How does it affect markets?” well…. Iran is in the top 5 countries of oil production. More importantly, Iran takes up a majority of the coastline in the Persian Gulf and now with strained relations in the middle east, they may be thinking of retaliating by acting aggressively in the Persian Gulf. Iran also has significant control over the Strait of Hormuz which means it’s going to be difficult to get oil out of Eastern Saudi Arabia, Southern Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. So as Iran starts to act up and oil starts to become difficult to move from that region we can see some prices pushing up due to uncertainty. This is by no means investment advice, just context. I’m providing a quick map so y’all can understand what I mean.

8.          Oil and natural gas industries are loving this by the way. The US is also Top 5 in oil production and Natural gas (fracking oil) has been playing second fiddle in the oil world for a while, this supply crunch can actually play well to improve natural gas sales and help those natural gas companies who’ve been taking a slight beating due to oversupply and taking on a bunch of debt. Some people are seeing a supply-side recession mid-2020 which I can see the argument for. In short, a supply-side recession is a recession that is caused by a significant shortage of supply from a particular resource which causes prices to jump up because demand has not fallen to match the fall in supply.

9.          No onto the World War III talk. I’ve been thinking about this recently and I’m not 100% sold on it. I’m not saying it’s impossible but let’s use that map I shared with you as perspective. Iraq is a US ally even though its neighbor is Iran. Saudi Arabia is a US ally, Israel is a US Ally. Iran’s ally is Russia but Trump and Russia are Frenemies. China is allied with Saudi Arabia and is trying to repair relations with the United States. The United States does not want to enter into another war because we literally don’t have the money, the country hasn’t been bringing in enough revenue (that big old budget deficit), and on top of that we were blowing money left and right on the previous wars. The worse thing that can happen is Iran shooting a nuke, but the nonproliferation treaty set Iran so far back in building nuclear weapons they’re starting from way far back and wouldn’t be able to successfully shoot one for a while. That’s why Trump talking so crazy. If Trump actually attacks Iranian monuments he’ll probably be labeled a war criminal and if Trump leads us to war, he’ll lose the 2020 election. The next President will likely sign a peace treaty and get us out of there. So whatever beef we have it’ll all be temporary. Focus on the money.

10.       With that focus… This year in investing is about getting rid of the losers. The theme of this year is corporate debt and the companies with the highest amount of corporate debt will be the first ones to go into bankruptcy or get bought out. To be more specific, if you’re doing your own research look for which companies hold the most amount of BBB bond debt. Those are the bonds that I personally think are really junk bonds disguised as investment-grade bonds. Rating firms keep inflating bond ratings for the check. There’s no real article for this… This is just me coming to conclusions due to my own research. Also, this isn’t investment advice. Don’t forget that.

The Dime 1/7

MARKETS

1. Markets: Across the board markets ended lower due to the uncertainty with Iran. Today Iran actually fired rockets at US bases in Iraq so it makes sense that US markets are spooked. The Dow closed lower by about 119 points (-0.42%). The S&P 500 Closed lower about 9 points (-0.28%). The Nasdaq closed lower about 2.88 points (-0.03%). Crude oil is trading 2% higher at $64.10 a barrel which is what was expected due to the political pressure. I think we’re going to need to sit back a while and see how this unfolds because there alotttt going on right now in oil.

DEBT

2.          In 2020 the first batch of companies to issue corporate bonds are US oil companies. They’re mostly issuing bonds so that they can have the cash to restructure their existing debt which they ran up during the shale (fracking oil) boom. They’re really pressed for money. North American Oil and gas companies have over $200 Billion worth of debt maturing in the next four years $40 billion of that maturing THIS YEAR. As I said, this year is about avoiding the losers. I’m not saying Oil and natural gas are losers, I’m just saying that when you owe money and borrow more money to pay off what you owe…. its not a combination that brings me joy.

3.          So check it… Since we’re on the subject on bonds… I wanted to show y’all that we personally are not that far removed from bonds. See if you have a student loan, chances are that student loan has a bondholder. So when you decided to participate in forbearance, or defer your payments, or lower your payments, the bondholder is sad as hell lol. I read an article today that was interesting. There’s a woman who is 50 years old and owe $250k worth of student loans and pays the minimum because she’s on income-based repayment. It is estimated that the bondholder who backed her student loans won’t get paid until she is 114 years old. I think its safe to say that student loans are going to two places. Either the government paying for them, or a significant portion of people just ain’t gonna pay.

4.          Speaking of student loans, things are getting wild with student enrollment in colleges. Falling enrollment is starting to shift the viability of investing in universities and the first batch of investments getting hit hard by it is investment in Student Housing. About 4% of debt backed by student housing that was converted into bonds sold in the market are 60 days late. Across the board that’s insanely HIGH. Bonds backed by apartments have 0.46% of them late or delinquent. What’s been happening is that there are fewer students but so many apartment complexes have been opening up, competition has become extremely fierce per student. If anyone you know is doing real estate and has a portfolio build on college housing… Check on them and see if they doing okay.

5.          Due to the largest budget cut in probably a generation, the IRS personal income-tax audits have dropped to its lowest level in decades. Not even half a percent of all individuals who filed last year were audited. There’s just not enough staff to do it. So if you file your taxes this year, you’re half as likely as to get audited as you were 10 years ago. WILD. The audits have been down for 8 straight years. Right now the IRS has about 78,000 employees and what’s crazy is that about 31% are projected to retire within the next five years. That’s all I have to say about that.

FEDERAL RESERVE

6.          The Federal Reserve hit the market with another $100 Billion today to keep the repo market afloat. $64 billion was used to buy overnight bonds and provide cash flow to money markets and another $35 billion is there to provide backup cash for the next 14 days. It’s crazy that this is happening because the Federal Reserve does not want to change one of its rules. This rule is called the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (or LCR) and essentially it requires banks to have a certain amount of cash at the federal reserve to prove that its solvent and safe. But this ratio is causing banks to actually not have enough money to fund daily operations, so instead of loosening the rule, The Federal reserve is like “Don’t worry fam I’ll just give you the money”. I’m not sure how productive this is…. but OK.

7.          A Boeing 737 Passenger jet just crashed in Iran due to technical difficulties and now shit about to get hella spooking. First, BOEING STOCK MIGHT GET ITS FACE BEAT IN TOMORROW. Second, Iran gonna be in hot water because if this can be traced back to the activity they participated in today, it’s about to get real wild. Staying on top of this story y’all.

8.          Gold is trading well since the Iran conflict started. It topped $1600 for the first time since summer. Due to harsh politics between the US and Iran investors are trying to park their money into safer investments. If you’re a subscriber of the Raising Benjamin Newsletter you probably got that Fire safe haven list I sent y’all over a year ago. If you’re in The Black List you probably have Gold in your portfolio. Gold is one of those assets that investors tend to run to when markets are choppy because it transcends any type of currency and all countries accept it. The issue with Gold of course is its portability.

9.          Due to falling in-store sales Macy’s is reportedly closing more than a dozen stores. To add to that, Pier 1 Imports is closing up to 450 locations which are almost half of the stores they have open in general. Retail locations are getting ate alive by e-commerce (Amazon, shopify) and its only getting worse. It’s crazy watching these establishments that made up my childhood close like that.

10.       California passed a new law (that just became active for this new year) called the California Consumer Privacy Act or the CCPA. This law gives residents of California the right to learn what data companies collect on them and how they make money off of that data. It also allows residents of California the right to ask companies to either delete their data, not sell it, or both. This is a big step in privacy and economics when it comes to tech. A big driver of tech companies is data and many of their valuations are based on the revenue that can be earned on data. It’s also ironic that California, home of Silicon Valley, passed this. I definitely can’t wait to see how this changes the tech landscape.

The Dime 1/8

MARKETS

1. Markets: Today was a decent day in markets relatively speaking. We bounced back from a few bad sessions due to the uncertainty of the Iran conflict. Trump out here talking like a WWE wrestler… So it’s lookin like investors are feeling the good buzz too. The Dow finished about 161 points higher (0.56%). The S&P 500 Closed about 15 points higher (0.49%). And The Nasdaq closed about 60 points higher (0.67%).

2.          As expected (if you read yesterdays Dime you know what I mean) BOEING TRASHED IT today. The stock fell almost 2% on the news that a Boeing 737 crashed as it was leaving Iran for Ukraine and killed 170 people. Rest in peace to those who were lost and condolences to their families. Boeing has to get it together before no one on earth is going to want to fly on a plane that was made by them. Seriously.

3.          To switch things to the opposite side of death, people are using technology to procreate. Nah literally. There are two apps out there that are currently helping strangers meet exclusively to have children. Not for love, just to have kids. The Apps are called PollenTree and Modamily. You create accounts on these apps with your preferences and about yourself and you are matched with a partner who is looking to have a child. I never thought we would have apps that would help strangers have babies together. Pollentree has contributed to an estimated 500 babies. That’s wild. The future is interesting.

4.          MEXICO HAS OIL. According to a group of drilling companies that own the rights to drill in the area, The Zama field in the southern Gulf of Mexico likely contains 670 Million barrels of recoverable oil. The first production from the area is expected to happen within three years but things may take longer because you know… The Mexican Government gotta give the green light. Apparently the newly discovered oil is adjacent an oil field that is owned by Pemex (one of Mexico’s largest oil companies). This is the beginning of a long story that I can’t wait to see the movie about in like 10 years lmao. Oil markets aren’t shook though. It’s too early and the findings are too small to really have a dent right now.

5.          McDonald’s is in trouble again. Recently their CEO had to step down because he had an inappropriate relationship with a colleague. Today two black executives sued the company for racial discrimination and civil rights abuses. The suit claims that people have been demoted both at the executive level and have dealt with hostile environments in franchises due to racial discrimination. The suit also claims that people have been repeatedly passed over for promotions and that the number of black people in leadership fell to 7 last year from 42 in 2014. Not gonna lie McDonald’s if this is true… I ain’t lovin’ it bro.

6.          Another thing we ain’t loving is Samsung’s 34% expected drop in profit for the fourth quarter of 2019. WOW. Executives are saying that the drop comes from a global slump in semiconductor sales (the little chips you find in your phone) and that has caused the company’s failure to perform. What’s worse is operating profits (how much money a company generates from its core business) is also down $4 billion. The amount of revenue they made? Flat. Barely grew at all. Samsung is having a HORRIBLE quarter fam. This quarter by Samsung has me looking at the tech market in an interesting light because they’re literally in the thick of it. They’re the largest chipmaker, they also are top 5 in hardware, huge in mobile, but to be fair… the Trade war did get to them. Let’s see how well they perform in the upcoming quarters.

7.          My favorite type of real estate investment is making a seriousssss comeback. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT’s for short) are starting to attract a larger number of investors and due to this these REIT’s are making some blockbuster deals. Now these REIT’s are a little different than the ones that I’m used to. The REIT’s I like are ones that are traded publicly in the markets, but these new REIT’s are called “Nontraded REIT’s” which means they are not as liquid (aka not as easy to get out of). Many people have criticism for these types of REIT’s saying that they’re just holding investor money and not really doing much with it… But Blackrock’s Nontraded REIT just landed a deal in Las Vegas that gives it control of the Bellagio. A few years ago Nontraded REIT’s had a bad year and investors lost faith in them. I’m interested to see what happens moving forward.

8.          Cargill (one of the largest meat suppliers in the US) said that their poultry and beef operations have increased over 60% due to increase sales in China. Literally China is going after so many different types of meat to make up for their pork shortage (From African Swine Fever) that it is literally pushing up the prices of ALL MEAT. I wish I could add Cargill to my bet but they’re a private company. It’s crazy how hard African Swine Fever hit China man. I still believe this is going to be the biggest story of 2020. (I know y’all are tired of me talking about this but ITS A BIG DEAL).

9.          Some investors are unclear about how to navigate the markets right now because we have a treasure trove of conflicting data. When it comes to consumer confidence most managers from big companies are worried about the economy but most people operating small businesses are actually very optimistic. The ISM numbers (essentially these are numbers that tell us how manufacturers are doing) haven’t been showing great results, but the flaw in ISM numbers is that they’re skewed toward larger companies because that’s who makes up a majority of their dataset. This difference in opinion has caused friction and confusion about how to move, how to invest, and more importantly… where to invest.

10.       Luxury credit card companies are starting to raise fees on their credit cards. Amex is raising its fees (and its perks) and Chase Sapphire is raising its yearly fee to $550 (up from $450). They’re also adding more partners like Doordash and Lyft. New cardholders will pay the fee on January 12th and people who been had Chase Sapphire will pay the fee April 1st. It’s interesting to see credit card companies do this especially because competition is so fierce in the space. Amex and Chase Sapphire have been neck and neck in these streets really paving the way for how credit cards should be done. They’re the cream of the crop of credit cards right now. Their main strategy to get new customers is to target them by providing points/services that are popular. Amex increased their price but also added $200 for uber. These small changes (that come with rewards) keep people from leaving and at the same time keeps them using the cards. Clever business model y’all. Kudos.

The Dime 1/9

 MARKETS

1. Markets hit alllll time highs AGAIN, with renewed faith that trade tensions will chill the fu*k out and possibilities of another semi-deal will push through. Next week China’s top trade negotiator is coming to Washington to rap with Trump about the possibilities that exist in ending this trade war. We already have Phase 1 coming together which is great let’s see what can come up next. The Dow closed about 211 points higher (0.74%), The S&P closed about 21 points higher (0.67%) and the Nasdaq closed about (0.81%).

2.          Some wild shit happened today, a US Bankruptcy Judge excused a US Navy Veteran with a law degree from repaying over $220K worth of student loan debt. Yes, I said what I said. Lawyers holding it down for other lawyers. That’s what I like to see. Judge Cecelia G. Morris of Poughkeepsie, NY (the new patron saint I’m praying to) wiped away the debt even though the vet isn’t disabled, or unemployable by saying that paying off the debt would be an undue hardship. In her ruling, Judge Morris said that most people in the bankruptcy industry and ordinary Americans “believe it impossible to discharge student loans.” The test that bankruptcy courts use to establish undue hardship is called the “Brunner test” which establishes that borrowers looking for debt relief from Bankruptcy for their student loans show that they cannot maintain a standard of living and will continue that way if they show “good faith” in trying to pay the loans back. LORD, I’VE SEEN THE GOOD YOU’VE DONE FOR OTHERS, I JUST WANT THAT FOR ME.

3.          So the other day I said that the Boeing 737 Jet that crashed leaving Iran happened due to “technical difficulties” and that I hoped it was only that because it would be big trouble for Iran. My hunch told me it was because of some other sh*t, and I’m sad because my hunch was right. Canadian and UK officials believe that the plane was actually shot down by the Iranians “by mistake”. This shit is wild as hell. I knew war crimes would come out of this because everyone was too upset and talking too much sh*t. Ego’s can get so crazy and now 176 people are dead including one of my peers from the World Economic Forum. It’s truly a sad day for the world. Someone gotta pay for all of this. For real.

4.          The MTA has decided to remove 300 new subway cars from service due to safety issues with the subway car doors. It’s crazy because the MTA dropped $600 Million on these new subway cars and now they gotta replace them. In the meantime the MTA plans on swapping out the new cars with spare cars (OLD ASS SUBWAY CARS). Mind you the fares finna stay the same. Interestingly enough though, NYC has this new low-income subway program that lets people pay less for Metrocards if they make under a certain amount of money. If you’re signed up for texts from my assistant @raisebenjamin shoot a text asking for the MTA subway link and I’ll make sure he texts you the info.

5.          Good news….. Fewer people are filing for unemployment. Jobless claims were down 9000 last week to 214,000 (nationwide) which either shows that people done found crazy side hustles or that the labor economy is doing well. Hopefully, it’s the latter. These numbers tend to be fickle though, sometimes people tend to file for unemployment later or wait for the severances to hit low numbers (or fully payout) before filing for unemployment. This could be a mix of those two factors. I tend to watch these numbers often so I’ll report back on a later date.

6.          The US Population is growing at its slowest pace in 100 years. It’s mixed news for me, on one end it’s showing that either we not having enough sex/we’re wearing protection, or we’re just saddled with so much debt and fear of the world that we’re deciding to not have kids (or have less kids). This sounds like good news to some but in the future, we’re going to need people to help our country grow and on a more personal note… who the hell is going to pay my social security when it’s my turn to cash out????? Many of the issues that have led to the population drop are infertility (in men and women) and one of the other issues is falling immigration.

7.          California is on a run. A new press release stated that the state is looking to launch its own prescription-drug label with generic drugs to aid in bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. I’m not going to lie… This is probably the best idea I’ve heard from a state in a while. Way to attack the problem head-on. The next step is to reform the Patent laws so that pharmaceutical companies can’t hold on to the exclusive rights to their meds as long. By bringing shortening the time allotted on those rights new drugs can become generic drugs at a faster pace, thus bringing down the overall price of prescription drugs (hopefully along with the rest of healthcare). Hit Benjamin if you want a text to learn how the prescription drug industry works.

8.          A bunch of real estate startups are making it much much easier to purchase your first investment property (either in whole or in part). Specifically, a startup called Roofstock has created an online marketplace where buyers and sellers trade 500 rental homes a month in Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Houston. Most of the homes sell for prices going from $50k to $400k AND THEY COME WITH TENANTS. They essentially turnkey! Another startup that helps investors is called Compound, which allows investors to buy shares of condo’s for as little as $50. Investing in these types of products can increase your passive income and get you extra cash flow to invest in other things or just supplement your lifestyle. Get on it y’all. Let’s get this cheddar.

9.          A new competitor to Beyond Meat just got funded. New Age Meats just raised $2.7 Million to make more Lab-grown meat to bring to market. The company was founded in 2018 and is developing pork sausages from animal cells.

10.       The beef with Iran has made some positive waves in the markets. Cybersecurity stocks have been killin it in these streets since the beef popped off. Specifically, Three ETF’s have been wilding First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR), and ETFMG Prime Cyber Security ETF (HACK)… Both have been up over 2% in the last 3 days. I’m not telling you to buy those ETF’s I’m just saying… This is what the chart says.

The Dime 1/10

MARKETS

1. The Dow crossed 29,000 points today for the first time in history. THAT IS NUTS. it eventually closed back down today with a mild sell-off to close the week at 28,823 points (-0.46%). The S&P 500 ended lower losing about 9 points (0.29%) and the Nasdaq closed about 24 points lower (0.27%). People had to take money off of the table today. That’s just the nature of the game.

JOBS REPORT

2.          The Monthly Jobs report came out today and we got some very interesting data. The economy added 145,000 jobs in the month of December which makes 10 straight years of job growth in our economy. I dead overheard someone on the train say “If you don’t have a job in this economy it’s your own damn fault.” I wouldn’t go that far but I guess I see the sentiment. This 10-year stretch is the longest stretch of job growth in 80 years which is very f*ckin impressive for an economy that was on life support in 2008. More Jobs talk in the next Dime tho.

3.          So one interesting tidbit from the Jobs report that I caught is that women have finally become the majority of the workforce. I don’t want to start no drama but I think dates are going to get very awkward when the check comes around moving forward lol. Women are currently holding 50.04% of the jobs (not counting people who are self-employed). Women are taking most of the jobs in the sectors that are growing the fastest. We’re talking about healthcare and education mostly. In the next 10 years, I hope we’re seeing more women CEO’s and membership on boards. That would be fire. In December alone healthcare and education added 36,000 jobs. That’s hella nuts. Mind you, those jobs pay very very well. So fellas, if you’re thinking about a career change… I’d heavily consider Healthcare or education. I did a Raising Benjamin Newsletter on how to get a job in healthcare with a person who works in recruiting at a large healthcare provider so if you need tips DM or shoot me a text through the @raisebenjamin app for the link.

4.          Speaking of getting paid more money, Taco Bell has decided to pilot a program where they’re going to pay their managers $100,000 a year. Yes. YOU READ THAT RIGHT. A WHOLE SIX FIGURE SALARY AT TACO BELL. Fam. Restaurants are pressed. Between rising meat prices and smaller margins, restaurants are relying on talent to take their services to the next level and it’s about time that they start paying their employees more. The fight for a $15 wage is just the beginning. Folks need to push higher. A service-based union would actually be really fire.

5.          Someone is preparing for a recession and isn’t telling us because people are still buying municipal bonds like they going out of style. Municipal bonds had a monster year in 2019 to the point where the S&P municipal bond index rose over 7% which is the highest levels we’ve seen in a while (at least 10 years). Over $6 billion of Municipal bonds were bought in the last year due to tax changes made on the state level in high tax states like California, New York, and New Jersey. What most people don’t tell you is that literally all of the money you make on Municipal bonds are tax-free. Municipal bonds are bonds issued by your state and/or local government. That money is used to fund the building of roads, bridges, schools, or simply to pay for public services that people in your state need. Investors are taking advantage of this because even though the federal government has slowed the gas on high taxes, states have not. They’ve been collecting higher taxes from you, me, but most importantly really rich people. So instead of paying the taxes they rather invest the money, get paid in interest and pay no taxes on the interest they earn.

6.          Over the last few days, the Federal Reserve dropped way over another $100 billion in cash to support the repo markets. I know I keep updating y’all on these numbers but it’s important because I haven’t seen the federal reserve pump this much money into an area of any economy since the financial crisis. I’m not saying this to scare you or anything but to me it’s weird. The FED is basically flying blind here because they never really had to deal with this type of problem on this type of scale. For those catching up, the Federal Reserve is basically running a repo program in which they are buying treasury bonds from banks and providing them with cash for it. Usually, banks/money market funds do that with each other. The issue is that money market funds/banks aren’t doing it because they don’t have enough cash on hand due to new federal reserve rules made after the financial crisis. I’m praying that pumping this much money on a regular basis is the proper solution because if it isn’t we might have a bigger problem on our hands.

IPOS (INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS)

7.          Casper, the mattress company, is launching its IPO soon. The company is currently valued at over $1 Billion and is generating over $300 million in revenue. That’s pretty good for a company that less than 7 years old. I’m not one to jump on IPO’s though simply because I need that public data to show me the real real. IPO’s, in general, had a hard time last year. Uber didn’t do so hot, neither did Lyft or Peloton. WeWork basically died during the IPO process and many startups took that as a warning to with things up and try to use another process of going public called the “direct listing”. Spotify did this and was successful, Google did something like this back in the day as well. Google’s version of this was called a dutch auction. Direct listings are essentially when a company decides not to issue new shares or work with underwriters (people who help promote and guarantee long term shareholders) to sell their stock on the day it goes public. People who had the stock before it went public tend to see the first day it trades to other people who are interested in gaining ownership in that company. Direct listings are of course slightly riskier but are way cheaper than the traditional IPO process when it requires you to pay people like Goldman Sachs large fees to bring you public. An IPO is like paying a party promoter to get you into a club so you can stunt in a bottle section. You get alotta shine and you might actually make some new lit friends but it’s going to cost you a pretty penny for the promoter.

8.          This year is looking like a big year for dividend payouts. It’s projected that over $500 Billion worth of dividends are going to be paid out this year by companies. Most of this is because companies are filled with cash in their pockets, another reason is that if a recession comes around companies want to make sure that people hold on to their stock. Dividends are essentially a thank-you payment for owning a stock. I tend to look for high dividend stocks to fill my portfolio because I know I can have a nice stream of income on top of the growth I get from the stock increasing in value over time. The thing that sucks sometimes about dividends is that you have to pay taxes on that income so the way I try to avoid it is by using my dividend payments to reinvest in the company by buying more shares of stock. It’s completely legal and some people’s investment accounts actually do it automatically. It’s something you should consider. Remember this ain’t investment advice so don’t be walking around telling people I told you to reinvest your dividends. If anything just say I introduced you to it and you want to know what your options are.

SPOOKY MARKETS

9.          Ironically in booming markets things can get…. interesting. Like this little tidbit. As the market sets new highs almost 40% of companies that are at record highs are actually in the red when you look closely at their books. That’s why people like me sometimes feel funny when seeing these numbers because they just don’t make sense. That’s why it makes even better sense to go bargain hunting to find good cheap stocks in companies with lots of revenue, low debt, and solid business models. Take Tesla for example. It is currently valued at over $85 billion, more than Ford and GM combined yet it didn’t turn a profit until the fourth quarter of 2019. How is a company that doesn’t make any money worth more than two companies who have long track records and steady sales and profits? I don’t know. I guess I gotta leave that to people who understand Tesla better than I do but I can’t front… The cars are fire.

10.       ETF companies (outside of Blackrock and Vanguard) are having a bit of a problem. The problem is that their assets under management aren’t growing. What seems to happen in the industry is that many investors are directly investing in the larger names more so than the smaller ones which have removed the opportunity for smaller ones to make strategic investments to prove themselves. Only about 55-60% of ETF’s are actually making money. The rest are either not making money yet or are closing up shop altogether. For those who aren’t familiar ETF’s are short for Exchange Traded Funds which are investment vehicles that curate a list of stocks (or other assets) based on asset class or strategy. So if you wanted to invest in Gold you could invest in the GLD which is an ETF that is focused on investing directly in Gold Bars. Yeah. Literally the metal gold. Some other ETF’s like the XLF invest in a basket of bank stocks so you have a diversified investment in the financial industry by buying 1 asset instead of buying a share of each bank stock individually. There are positives and negatives to having large companies dominate the industry. The positive of course it’s that you the ETF you buy is from a more trusted name with a better track record. The negative, of course, is that your options are limited so you may actually be paying higher in ETF fees or just limited strategies and exposure because the same types of folks are trading the same types of assets in a similar way. It’s all a double-edged sword I guess.

That’s it for this week’s recap of The Dime. Don’t be stingy with the ball, pass it to a friend.

The Dime Weekly Recap 11/4

11/5 Tuesday

1.          Markets are living their best lives at ALL TIME HIGHS. The Dow hit all-time highs moving nearly half a percent (0.42%). The S&P is still in all-time high territory and moved 0.37%. The Nasdaq is also in all-time high territory and moved half a percent (0.56%). Everyone is drunk off of optimism right now. Relations with China have seemed to chill a little, banks like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America did well yesterday, even Energy companies took off yesterday. Spooky SZN is over and everyone is loving it.

2.          The McDonalds CEO Steve Easterbook got fired yesterday because he had a sexual relationship with another co-worker. Boy was WILDIN. Rule number 1, don’t sh*t where you eat my guy. The stripped him of both his CEO position and his board position in the company. His replacement shares the same vision he has (in growing the company) so it’s expected that McDonalds will continue the same course. McDonalds has been UP OD the last few years even though restaurant sales have practically been the same. The company is getting leaner and it’s showing.

Cash is clearly King right now 

3.          Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett’s company) hit a record in the amount of cash it holds yesterday. They currently have $128 Billion in cash right now. That’s crazy because Apple currently has a little over $200 Billion in cash which leads me to ask…. What are companies about to do with all this extra cash? What are they preparing for? Usually when companies have all this cash they focus on acquisitions (buying other companies) so if this is the trend moving forward i’m hella excited because there’s a ton of opportunities to make some $$$ if you find em.

 Biotech LIT

4.          Biotech stocks have been doing very well on the low for the last month. Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Biogen have all climbed up at least 20% in the last month. This is after having a year thats not been so hot. They’ve all been releasing new drugs and new regulatory filings. Abbvie specifically has had an incredible 3rd quarter even after announcing their buyout of another biotech company Allegran. I guess you can say that Biotech is boomin.

5.          Over the past year the most popular funds have been “low volatility” Exchange Traded Funds (ETF). This is mostly due to the fact that the stock market in general has been so volatile and investors have been looking for something that doesn’t move as crazy but still rises on a steady basis. This year these funds total assets under management reached over $100 Billion. Some downsides though… These funds have never been through a recession, so investors still don’t know how these funds will perform under these environments.

6.          Although there has been alot of backlash, some funds have decided to keep their shares in gun companies. Blackrock’s ETF (iShares Core S&P small-cap (ticker symbol IJR)) has held on to their gun stocks in Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor brands Company (owner of Smith & Wesson). Blackrock currently owns about 6% of Sturm Ruger and another fund Dimensional Fund Advisors US Small Cap Value Portfolio (ticker symbol DFSVX) owns about 3.3% of American Outdoor Brands. If you own these ETF’s you own guns. The lesson here? Know what your ETF’s are holding.

7.          Under Armour is getting pressed by the government over its accounting practices. The claim is that they may have been shifting sales from quarter to quarter essentially making their company look healthier than it actually was. If you didn’t know, their CEO Kevin Plank resigned recently and now this is happening. it’s all crazy other there right now.

Me giving away mad gems on this podcast

8.          Driven Society dropped a new podcast episode yesterday. I’m in it. I’m in there spilling the beans. I talk about my parents, college, my first few years on Wall Street, my small stint in advertising, best real estate moves, I even give up my favorite dividend plays. I was wildin on there. I can’t believe I gave up all that info for free lol.

9.          New data suggests that a part of the reason home sales haven’t been as lit is because homeowners are actually staying in their homes longer. Homeowners used to stay in their homes an average of 8 years, now they’re staying much longer (13 years). This lack of movement has contributed to a fall in home sales. currently (when you adjust it for population) we are at the lowest level of homes put up for sale in history. No one wants to go and I don’t blame em. You spend all that time saving for that house… Enjoy that… Make memories in that.

10.       Jersey City is about to vote on new regulations that my slowdown residents abilities to do AirBnB’s. This is after many residents have complained AirBnB’s have helped contribute to higher rental prices in the city itself. Part of the rule states that if an owner does not live in the property, they cannot rent the property for more than 60 days a year. You’d have to acquire a city permit to have that ability and caps will be set on the number of units that can perform short term rentals.

11/6 Wednesday

1.     Markets continue to rally. The Dow Jones is currently killing it and closed slightly higher today at 0.1%. The S&P closed slightly lower but is still in all time high territory finishing the day down 0.1%. The Nasdaq basically even today but is still doing it’s thing at all time high territory. The whole market is trading at these levels because trade deal optimism is high. Investors are looking at the possibility of a good trade deal happening between the US and China possibly leading to an end to this trade war. If it ends…. I see no end to this rally. But don’t get it twisted… There’s still some flaws lurking in these markets so don’t swim naked out here y’all.

2.          Xerox is considering buying HP in a deal that will cost $27 Billion. That’s a wholeeeee lotttaa printer money lmfao. They plan on doing a cash and stock deal which should help out the company but some people on the street think its likely that HP is going to reject the initial offer. This whole process is like asking your crush to go on a date (who likes you too) but she says nah because she’s playing hard to get. You love and hate to see it at the same time. Xerox plans on raising some of the cash through its cash out play on fujifilm which its selling for $2.3 Billion. Xerox’s stock is up 84% this year (mostly by cutting its costs) and it plans on implementing the same strategy to HP if the acquisition goes through. I’ll update y’all as more news comes in because this is a legacy, spicy deal.

3.          We thought WeWork was Softbank’s only problem, but it’s not. Apparently, there are more companies in Softbank’s portfolio that are underperforming. Shit is looking spooky, there are chinks in the armor and things might not be looking good for the homie Masayoshi Son (CEO of Softbank). A number of ride hailing firms along with dozens of firms are burning through cash in their portfolio and aren’t even close to profitability. It’s looking like off of WeWork and these other firms alone Softbank’s Vision fund will have to take billions of dollars in losses due to mark downs in valuations due to these firms underperforming. The whole Venture capital industry is watching this closely.

4.          Apple is making its move and investing in affordable housing. It plans to spend $2.5 billion toward the purpose and decided that it will focus its work on California (where a majority of its employees are located). Apple is the fourth big tech company to make this move following Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. I love how these tech companies are trying to address these social problems. This is not getting enough news y’all. For real. Apple also plans on using another $1 Billion on helping first time home buyers make down payments. $300 Million (of the $2.3 Billion) will go to develop affordable housing in San Jose California, and another $200 Million (of the $2.3 Billion) will go create affordable housing in the Bay area. The tide is turning y’all. Tech is apparently here to save the day (of course after being one of the big catalysts of the problem in the first place).

Uber be like….

5.          Uber is getting flamed. BIG TIME. Their 3rd quarter losses added up to over $1 Billion. Their stock is down almost 30% since IPO. It’s all a mess. Through this though they promise a full year of profit for the year 2021. At this point I don’t know if investors can wait that long. Especially when blue chip stocks are out here killing the game. I was waiting for the stock to dip under $30 a share to buy it and its been trading at under $30 for a while but I still haven’t pulled the trigger yet because I’m still seeing a bunch of problems in the company. 1. They’re in too many markets. 2. Uber eats still has to prove itself to me. 3. What the hell happened to the driverless car project? 4. Why y’all doing so much y’all doing driverless trucks too right? I dunno man. It’s much easier to find new/old companies with less problems than me trying to justify buying a “big brand”. I’ve said this on the timeline before that it was overvalued, but tbh I didn’t think the problems were THIS bad.

6.          According to a recent poll American workers under 35 are more likely to be victims of discrimination at the office. The poll shows that 3 out of 5 young workers have either witnessed or have been victims of discrimination. This is either based on age, sex, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. This is a small poll (only 1100 people) but its still alarming to me. WTF. I’m not sure if there are more instances or were just becoming more aware of these instances. Either way were more likely to talk about it, which is good. What’s more interesting is that the survey across the board that young workers see more instances of discrimination than older workers. 50% of young workers saw or were victim to racism compared to 33% of older workers (over the age of 55). 52% of young workers say they have been victim or saw gender discrimination compared to 30% of workers over the age of 55. It’s almost as if we see the world differently than previous generations. This data is a precursor to an entirely new type of work environment. I’m interested to see how companies use this data to improve working conditions for our generation of workers.

7.          It’s expected to be a very very cold winter and because of that Natural Gas is boomin. Natural Gas futures (basically fixed contracts for later deliveries) jumped almost 4% Monday due to the cold weather forecast. I still wouldn’t run and invest in natural gas companies yet. Supplies of natural gas are still high and it is still a fiercely competitive industry in which companies can pull out that resource at a much easier rate.

 FREE HOMES FOR THE HOMELESS 

8.          UnitedHealthCare is giving apartments away to homeless people. What’s the logic? Better, cheaper, and more efficient healthcare. According to their stats due to emergency visits it costs insurers 10 to 20 times more money to care for the homeless due to the illnesses (or lack of care of illnesses) developed through that lifestyle. Being homeless can cause a person to develop many illnesses from heart failure, to drug addiction and many others. So the CEO of UnitedHealthcare is testing a way to prevent (or be more effective in taking care of) all of that by giving away apartments to those who need it most. Sidebar though: why does it feel like were going back to company towns? (google that if you’ve never heard of it).

9.          A recent study by the Federal Reserve found that Economic inequality is much bigger in certain parts of the country than others. It’s found that economic inequality is much larger in New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco than in many other parts of the country. Economic inequality is also high in the metro areas of Texas, Louisiana and Alabama. The lowest areas of inequality are in the Midwest and the Great Lakes region of the country. The study also found that wage inequality is driven primarily by globalization and technological change. There’s also a bunch of other very specific data in this study that I found very insightful. I can’t wait to share this link with y’all next Sunday.

10.       Facebook is rebranding. For the first time in the history of the company we have a logo color changes and a new presentation. Much of the rebranding is focused on all of the other companies facebook owns and will not change the way the current social network looks. The new facebook logo, literally in all caps “FACEBOOK”, is essentially a way for people to know that the products they’re using are part of the facebook ecosystem, which tells me that they plan on expanding even more. The logo itself is basically a gif that changes to the colors of instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus.

11/7 Thursday

1.     Markets remained relatively unchanged today. The Dow inched barely lower. Moved down 0.07 points which essentially meant nothing in real percentages. The Nasdaq inched down 24 points which translated to almost 0.3%. The S&P inched up 2 points which translates into 0.07% which is essentially unchanged. Everyone is waiting on the trade deal. It’s the end all be all of this game right now. If Trump hammers it out we’re looking at some real moves. Until then markets are going to be as quiet as they were today.

2.     If you’ve been following me for a while, you now I’ve been building a portfolio prepared for a recession. I personally don’t think the recession will be that bad. We’re not looking at some 2008 shit, we’re really looking at a recession that’s more like 2001. There are some things in the market that don’t look good but they’re not systemic problems. The only systemic issue I see out here right now is the mess that is money markets and the Federal Reserve is doing everything they can to put that fire out before it becomes something crazy. Investors feel the same and they’re actually more optimistic than I am. One of the hallmarks that I see that marks the market as healthy is the amount of cash companies have on hand right now. Apple is sitting on over $200 Billion, Berkshire Hathaway has over $120 Billion, Microsoft got boucoup bucks on hand, if you see some of the stories I have save in highlights you can see some of the stats. Through a tough time these companies can buy back their own stock, or reinvest in Research & Development, layoff less employees, and figure out ways to innovate through a recession. Other Investors have a different perspective. They think that having all this cash actually means that assets are underpriced and that companies will use this cash to buy more assets. It’s a great perspective and I like that it differs from mine. We will see how it pans out.

3.     T-Mobile got the green light in a 3-2 vote from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This green light means that T-Mobile can officially buy Sprint. This combination will make them the 3rd largest phone company in the country. THIS IS HUGE Y’all. HUGE. I bought Sprint Stock back in 2012 for under $3 a share and now its going pump up and get converted to T-Mobile shares. Verizon and AT&T gotta be shook right now. With 5G rolling out I wonder how crazy the cell phone space is going to get.

4.     Chicken sandwich wars has caused collateral damage. That collateral damage is Shake Shack. The stock has been beaten down over 20% this week because of weak sales. They need the Popeyes social media team because they’re burgers are hella good but their marketing is type lame. I know it’s supposed to be a “better quality” burger/chicken sandwich but they gotta learn how to get in on this action. Popeyes chicken sandwich done took a break and came back and shake shack sales are down and are expected to continue down this trend til the end of the year. Now the stock is still way up (up 47% this year) and performing better than McDonald’s and other burger chains but there’s still room for growth here in my opinion and what they lack is…. Marketing.

5.     Bond interest rates are increasing because markets think a good trade deal is going to happen. 10 year treasury bonds are up 4.3% today compared to its price 2 days ago. There’s a good feeling coming down the pipe and everyone is hoping Trump doesn’t f*ck this up like he f*cks everything else up lol. Bring the deal home so we can get this chedda big fella.

6.     On the other end China’s currency hit a 3 month high this week on high trade hopes. I hope China takes note of this and plays it cool next meeting. The world wants this beef to end so we can make some money. The Yuan gained 0.5% against the dollar (which is a big move) on yesterday and markets are loving it. Let’s keep the optimism rolling. I’m trying to get more of this Pork/Chicken money. LETS GOOOO.

 PELOTON SHORT SQUEEZE

7.     Something interesting is happening over at Peloton. So i’ve been watching the stock closely since it’s IPO (mostly because I don’t understand the hype) and some technical indicators are telling me that HELLA INVESTORS are shorting the stock. 27 Million shares of Peloton stock is being shorted right now. Yet only 38 Million shares are currently available for trading. That means over 70% of the available shares are being shorted at the moment. Investors really see Peloton doing horrible in the short term. These are some wild numbers. I think if some really good news comes out of Peloton right now we’re going to see alot of those shorts get SQUEEZED. But if they’re right, its probably the biggest “I don’t give a f*ck about your tech” move i’ve seen in a while in markets. I’m actually shocked that these stats aren’t bigger news. WILD.

8.     AT&T paid $60 Million to settle a data case in which the company was accused of slowing down the speeds of phones who’s customers had unlimited data plans and still charging them for unlimited data plans. You know how tight I would be if I was paying for unlimited and y’all were slowing my phone down on purpose? WOW. The settlement money is going to be deposited into a fund that AT&T is going to partially refund customers who had signed up before 2011 and had their speeds throttled.

 CHINA MOVES

9.     The Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is following the Raising Benjamin play and heavily investing in China. AstraZeneca is raising $1 Billion to invest directly in Chinese Startups as they gear up for entry into the worlds largest population aka the worlds largest pharmaceutical market. The firm plans on raising this money over 4 years and has interested some Venture Capital firms like Sequoia Capital. Their competitor Merck recently reported that their sales in China grew by 90% and as the population becomes more Obese and Overweight more pharmaceutical companies plan on entering the market to take advantage of the many illnesses attached to obesity. Like I said last week and two weeks ago FITNESS TRAINERS… CHINA IS YOUR NEW MARKET. I DON’T KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE TO SAY THIS.

10.   China’s real estate market is getting TOO HOT and now its starting to cool off has banks in China start to lay back on lending to individuals. If you’re a follower of The Dime💰 you probably saw that there’s been a run on China’s banks lately. Some of China’s biggest banks are currently short on cash which explains why lending is starting to get tight. Because of this the real estate market is getting a little cold and now people in China are starting to look at smaller/more affordable cities to live in because the cost of living is too high in some of China’s biggest cities. See how one problem at the bank can cause a problem right on your block? It’s crazy how interconnected our financial system is.

11/8 Friday

1.     Markets are experiencing a slight pull back right now after Trump done went and said he doesn’t plan on rolling back Tariffs. We still have a month out til the next meeting with China so maybe he can change his mind between now and then.

More Life

2.     Drake just made a move to get himself into the Weed Game. Drake just partnered with Canopy Growth Company (Ticker symbol CGC) to create the More Life Growth Company. Drake will own 60% of the company and Canopy Growth will own the other 40%. The company itself was a subsidiary of Canopy Growth Company and has already acquired its licenses to cultivate, process, and sell cannabis. Canopy has done this before. They have partnered several celebrities (Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Snoop Dogg, and Martha Stewart). It’s great positioning for Canopy Growth especially because their stock is down 28% this year due to the mass exodus out of marijuana companies this year. I’m hoping this turns out to be a great venture for the boy. Would be dope to get an OVO Dime bag at OVOFest next year.

PRIVATE EQUITY PULLIN UP TO CHINA LIKE WHATS GOOD

3.     China has a history of saving its companies from bankruptcy. When they reached close to death literally the state would inject money to keep them alive. Now they have changed their tune. They’re becoming more like us. China has revamped their bankruptcy system and has created 90 bankruptcy courts that will deal with companies who file for bankruptcy. This is alarming to me. It tells me that China is about to embark a bunch of failing companies and has decided that they’re not going use government funds to save them. Instead they’re going to allow lawyers, foreign investors, and bankers to jump in and make some cash. The system is going to operate very similar to chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US which allows companies to restructure under the protection of the courts. With this, companies can keep their businesses alive and pay off their debtors.

4.     The USA is gettin PAID. The country took in $7 Billion in Tariffs. This is a record y’all. Most of the money came from Chinese electronics, apparel, tools, and other consumer goods. I never though China would cough up the cash to be honest but hey… business is business. Tariff revenue is up 59% from 2018. I hope they’re using this tariff money for social programs (probably not). A big boost came from a tariff that came into effect on September 1st that focused solely on consumer goods which probably hurt China hard. All those t-shirts etc made in China? Yeah in September they all paid an extra tax to get that here. I’m thinking that this first tariff China is going to want to get Trump to repeal. We will see though.

 UBER LOCKUP PERIOD DONE

5.     Uber’s stock is getting beat down some more. The lock up period is over and now the insiders (people who owned the stock before IPO) are selling the stock. For those who aren’t familiar, a lockup period is a contract that investors sign when they buy shares of a stock before going public to promise that they won’t sell the stock for a certain period of time. Uber had their early investors to do the same thing. The stock closed down 45% from its IPO price on Tuesday (disgusting). It looks like it’s going to get worse. My previous buy in for Uber was under $30 a share but now its trading in the $25 range. I think it could dip down below $20.

6.     Chinese exports fell less than imports for the month of October. Which is kind of expected with the heights that the trade war reached. Another interesting thought though.... what if China pivoted into a consumer nation? Much like the US. I wonder what the economic effect would be, globally.

 BLOOMBERG FOR PRESIDENT?

7.     Mike Bloomberg is planning on throwing in his bid to run for President. A part of me thinks he’s doing this because he cares. A part of me thinks he’s doing this so he can fracture the party and Elizabeth Warren can lose. This is all OD spicy. I never thought Elizabeth Warren would have billionaires this rattled.

8.     Juul will no longer sell mint flavored pods. The flavor era is over. The only flavors left are tobacco and menthol. They did this of course to gain favor with the FDA. But it’s going to hurt the bottom line seriously. Mint was their most popular flavor period. In the private markets a share of Juul stock used to go for $300 a share, now it goes for about $90.

9.     Sears and Kmart are closing 96 more stores by February. Amazon is eating everyone’s lunch. This is nuts bro. It’s really crazy to watch a company like Sears that was huge in Brooklyn culture go down like that. This business game has no sympathy. None.

10.   Pension plans, who were known for the investments in only safe products, have been trending toward riskier investments as of late. They’re trading in private markets, real estate projects, riskier bonds, basically these Pension fund managers are with the With interest rates so low, it’s tough to get a return in the safest assets so in order to get a return you need to take on higher risk.

Don’t forget. Don’t be Stingy with The Dime. Pass it to a friend.

The Dime Weekly Recap 10/28

The Dime 10/28 (Monday)

The END of SPOOKY SZN

1. The S&P 500 hit ALL TIME HIGHS today. It’s like investors don’t see a recession coming at all. The whole market is being pulled up by majority tech stocks which is interesting especially when technology is getting the most amount of public scrutiny right now. Whatever tho. The Dow only inched 0.5% higher and the Nasdaq pushed up about 1% too. It’s great energy but it’s scary too. I’m guessing its the litness before the storm.

2. Tiffany got the wild crazy offer from LVMH today. LVMH offered too buy Tiffany ALL-CASH for $120 a share which values them at $14.5 Billion. That’s alot to pay for some diamonds. I guess diamonds really be forever. (I hope you like what I did there lol). News Update: Tiffany has turned down the offer.

   POPEYES CHICKEN SANDWICH BACK

3. Popeyes Chicken Sandwich is back this Sunday. As excited as I am about the return of my beloved sandwich what I’m more interested in is the stock. The Company that owns Popeyes chicken is Restaurant Brands international (QSR is the ticker symbol) and I’m thinking that profits will make a killing. Popeyes had one big problem before though… Supply. Supply for the breaded chicken sandwiches was low before which put Popeyes in a crunch. It appears that they may have solved the problem. I’m going to do some research though to see if I can make a bigger flip off of this activity. I’ll likely publish it here but it’ll always first go to my #Blacklist members. Either way… Keep a close eye on em and remember who you’re making rich when you buy them.

4. Blackstone is increasing it’s bet on Warehouses and I love it. If you’ve been a reader of The Dime you know we’ve been covering how eCommerce is making warehouse properties more profitable. I’ve listed out some plays in my playbook to get into the warehouse game but I ain’t ready to share it until I’m super sure. But Blackstone def is… Warehouse rent increases have jumped 37% this year and as the eCommerce space becomes more crowded I think there’s room for more growth there. I’m taking notes.

5. The Federal Reserve is frustrated as hell. Why? Because inflation won’t budge. As they keep pumping more money into the economic system inflation itself won’t increase by the rate they’ve expected. Before the financial crisis inflation was expected to increase 3% per year. But now people are banking on 2.3% (down from 2.4%) per year. This is still above the Federal Reserves target (2% per year) but they want people to expect more. Why? Well if people expect higher inflation, then they are more likely to negotiate for higher raises… which would lead to higher wages in the long run. I could explain what the FED’s jobs are but that would be hella long. If you want that detail text me… The text link is in my bio.

6. The Super Ritzy private club Soho House just raised $100 Million to double the amount of venues they have worldwide. This is CRAZY. They have now become a $2 Billion company. I never thought that an expensive membership club group would be able to raise this much money and run a business that attracts such lit investors.

7. At least 7 coal companies have filed for bankruptcy since last October. The industry is getting BODIED right now. It’s crazy because Trump ran on “saving the coal industry” and they doing worse than they did under Obama. Be careful of the master you choose because they could end up being your maker. The largest issue facing coal companies is that natural gas is selling at a much cheaper rate, its cleaner, and it costs so much to get coal out of the ground it almost makes no sense to be in business. Obama wasn’t their problem… The free market was their problem.

   OVER $2600 FOR SOME SHOES?

8. In China, sneakers are going for such expensive prices that it’s actually looking like a Sneaker Bubble. I never in my life thought I would see a “Sneaker Bubble” People in China getting money because a pair of Travis Scott Jordan’s just moved for over $2600. All I gotta say is y’all wildin. Me and my homies used to collect sneakers and it never got that crazy. Word of advice though… If you sell sneakers… Try to get into the Chinese market and beat them in the head bro.

9. Obesity is becoming a problem in China. More than a quarter of Chinese adults are either overweight or obese. When you count children, the number of overweight or obese is about 1 in 5. In 1995 that number was 1 in 20. If you’re a trainer…. CHINA IS YOUR NEW MARKET. GET BUSY HOMIES.

   GO TO JAPAN AND GET A FREE CRIB

10. The town of Okutama, Japan is giving away FREE houses. There’s a catch though (there’s always a catch lmao)…. You have to live in the house for 15 years. Japan has been dealing with population decline for a while. People aren’t having sex (or children) at a pace to increase the population and also the economy hasn’t been doing well enough for people to stay (or come back home after going overseas). This is a big deal, but also a big opportunity for those who want to give living somewhere else a try.

    The Dime 10/30 (Wednesday)

    1. Markets is wild right now. The S&P 500 touched all-time highs again growing up 0.3%, the Nasdaq matched their energy and moved up the same amount too. Dow Jones moved up 0.4%. But the real drama is on its way. Keep reading…..

    2. The Federal Reserve cut the fed funds rate (the economy’s key interest rate) down to the range of 1.5% to 1.75% Down from 2.0% to 1.75%. This may sound small but what it actually adds up. This means ALOT for the economy. It means banks CAN lend at lower interest rates. Most people take this opportunity to refinance their mortgages, get new credit cards at lower interest rates and transfer their balances, or just get their small business loans at lower interest rates. Just because banks CAN doesn’t mean they will though… Sometimes banks keep their rates the same and pocket the difference. I’m watching bank stocks real closely (like I always do).

    3. The NCAA finally lettin my young homies get paid. The NCAA has declared that they will start making steps toward allowing collegiate players to make money off of their names and likenesses. This is a big win for America as a whole. College players don’t have to sign up for slavery just to get into the league anymore. The wealth is spreading and I love it. Jay-Z is celebrating right now because RocNation Sports is about to be all over that. Shoutout to Rich Paul for moving the needle. If you’re an agent or someone who is thinking about getting into that industry you better start making relationships with these D-1 (bound) high school athletes.

       RIP TO THE BIG HOMIE

    4. RIP to the big homie John Witherspoon. A true legend in the game. You were a leader, someone who gave us confidence, someone who made us laugh, and more importantly someone who taught us what true manhood is. You will always be remembered King. Rest easy. Make my Dad laugh while you’re up there he loves him some jokes.

    5. Ironically, Europe is having them some America problems. Companies are hiring, but the workers aren’t ready. Specifically in Italy, 1 out of 3 young people are unemployed. The problem is that many of them aren’t going into vocational school. There’s a bunch of factory jobs available and young Italians aren’t filling them. It’s because they went to college instead and don’t have the necessary skills to fill the factory jobs. Unemployment right now is 9.5% in Italy and because they’re in the Eurozone economy it affects the rest of the countries in the zone. A shortage of filled jobs actually stunts production and currently this effect has cut production by 17% in the Eurozone. This problem sounds eerily familiar (more college graduates in liberal arts than in math/science/business in the US.)

       MTA’S FARE WAR

    6. So the MTA has been trying to fight fare evasion for the longest. I personally think the MTA should be free and they should just raise taxes on us (but whatever tho), but instead the MTA just wants to let loose and have cops point guns at people and charge fines. The ads have actually been really trash (if you live in NY you’ve seen em). They say things like “were stepping up fare evasion enforcement” and “we’d rather your $2.75 fare than your $100 fine” it’s super threatening. Well the MTA finally gets it after doing some research and they plan on changing the style of the language. Instead of the current ads they basically are going to champion those who paid the fare and say that those who didn’t pay are “cheating the system” I doubt it’ll work cause tbh those who paid, didn’t want to pay, and those who didn’t pay don’t give a f*ck. Just fund the system instead of letting real estate developers make money off buildings and pay no taxes for 20 years.

    7. Since were on the subject of NY real estate… There’s a whole bond market in Israel for NY apartment real estate. Many landlords been moving bonds there for years. They’ve been doing well since landlords have been able to fill apartments at a decent rate so the bond hustle has been good. Let me tell you the hustle real quick. Basically people buy a building, rent the units, take the leases from the rentals, package them into a bond, and sell that bond in Israel. That’s been great until this year when the New York rent control laws changed and effectively limited the growth of rental prices on a large amount on NY rentals. The law affects a large majority of rent stabilized apartments (tbh I think all of them). Since then the bond prices have been taking a slight dip. To add to that many apartments (specifically in the new tax abatement buildings) have been unsold/not rented. In June alone the bond prices of the Pinnacle Group (a prominent rent stabilized NY real estate group) fell 13%. It’s gettin crazy in NY so if you’re thinking about getting into NY real estate I’d tread lightly. Make sure the units you renting aren’t rent stabilized. See a real estate lawyer before making moves (you should be doing this anyway). Any experts in this space please hit my DM’s tho because I’m only on the financing side of this game not in the actual foot on the ground side. Make it make sense for me cause this money not looking good.

    8. Facebook stock jumped today as revenue grew 29%. Revenue was $17.65 billion in the 3rd quarter alone. They’re still in the middle of the storm with their ads and with public scrutiny. Through all of that the stock is up 44% this year (Thank God because y’all saw that I bet the house on FB when I posted it in IG stories a while back lol). Am I going to hold on to it? Hell yeah. Election cycle is only going to heat up in 2020 and people gonna be running more ads on there trying to convince me to vote for them or commit to a cause. The game is the game. If you’re gonna use me as a pawn, I’m gonna make sure I cash out on you.

       SLOWER ECONOMIC GROWTH

    9. The economy grew at a slower pace in the 3rd quarter. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) the total of everything that is bought, sold, invested (from everyone & the government) plus the amount that is exported subtracted by the amount that is imported into our country… is the number we use to measure economic growth. In the 3rd quarter growth was only 1.9% because we had a fall in business investment and government spending. For my math heads the formula is C (consumption) + I (investment) + G (Government spending and investment) + (X -I)(X = Exports & I = Imports) = GDP. We get the change in percentage by comparing it to the last period we’re looking at. If you didn’t know that… You learned something new today. Either way that spells not so good news, but the federal reserve lowered interest rates today so let’s see if that changes anything moving forward. If this was a little crazy for you to take in… DM me I’ll try to make it make a little more sense.

    10. AT&T (who owns HBO) is set to release HBO max for $14.99 a month which will just add right up on top of your bill. This is their answer to Netflix. I ain’t mad at it, I just find it funny how all these streaming services making it a war thing but if you sign up for all of them (netflix, disney, hbo, hulu, amazon prime stream etc) the amount just adds up to like $90 which is basically the price of a wifi combo cable bill. Y’ALL AIN’T SLICK I SEE THROUGH THE BULLSH*T. HBO Max will basically be HBO I think? Who knows whatever it is this streaming war getting kinda annoying.

The Dime (10/31) (Thursday)

1. Here we are. The last day of SP👀KY SZN. How did we do? Well it ended in a spooky ass way. The Dow slid half a percent (0.52%), the Nasdaq slid 0.14% and the S&P after a rockstar week closed out at 0.3%. For perspective though.... Let’s say you have index funds that follows the major indexes step by step and grows at the same exact rate as their movement in the markets. If you had the Dow, you’d be up a total of 3.23% this month. If you had the S&P 500 you’d be up 4.36%. If you had the Nasdaq you’d be up 5.34%. That’s actually not a bad month y’all. Through all the spooky shit I’m surprised things turned out that well. Lesson of the day? Ignore the noise and be confident in your picks. More importantly, always make sure your downside risk is limited

   CHICKEN STOCKS (NO PUN)

2. Although not much news covered it... yesterday was chicken day. Chicken stocks were booming. Why you ask? Well since Trump hashed out that preliminary trade deal with China US chicken producers got the green light to move chicken in China. Since China is going through African Swine Fever (regular readers of The Dime💰 and #Blacklist members know the deal with this) their citizens are dying for alternative sources of meat products. It’s looking like chicken prices will increase in 2020 due to demand. Sanderson’s chicken stock had a 16% boost yesterday due to trade opening up in China. It’s👏🏾 about 👏🏾 to be 👏🏾 LIT.

3. China is making moves. Today they’re about to launch 5G for the first time. For those unfamiliar with 5G it’s a technology anchored to phones which will speed up cell phone service. It’s expected to be 100 times faster than the 4G network (currently most of our phones run on 4G or LTE). 5G technology is expected to boost the ability for driverless cars, robot operated factories, and internet connected pacemakers. By moving into 5G first China expects to be leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the world in tech. Get. Ready.

4. Twitter is smart as hell. The watch Facebook get pressed by Congress on an issue and does exactly what congress wants them to do. Yesterday the Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter & Square) announced that Twitter would not be allowing ANY political ads on their platform. Literally ZERO. The only ads they’ll allow is ads that tell people when and where to vote. Big move and a smart one to get ahead of Zuckerberg who said he would still allow Facebook to run ads by politicians. Looking forward to see who wins the battle here.

5. Impeachment is becoming a real thing. The House of Representatives just passed a resolution to inquire about Trump’s relationships and conversations with Ukraine. Trump really going down for talking too crazy on the phone. He must’ve never read about Nixon. Those who fail to read history are doomed to repeat it.

6. Manhattan condo real estate is not looking good at all right now y’all. This year so far new developments sold slightly above 1500 units of condos which is way down from its high in 2015-2016 (about 2000-2500 units). Prices are high and the market knows it and some brokers are saying that it’ll be like that for the foreseeable future.

   NEW YORK LANDLORDS ARE PRESSED

7. Remember yesterday’s story about the real estate bonds doing badly in the Israeli market due to New York tenant law changes? Well there’s more where that came from. Some big time landlord equity groups have started missing their loan payments in their upper manhattan rental properties. They’re currently behind more than $200 Million. The plot thickens though. The loans themselves got packed into bonds and financed more than 600 rental apartments in Upper Manhattan. Shit is getting SPOOKY right now in NY real estate. Many of these properties were bought in the last few years with the hopes of renovating them and moving them out of rent stabilization into unregulated apartments but Governor Cuomo said SYKEEEEEE back in June when he passed a whole slew of new protections for rent stabilized apartments. It’s looking like real estate firms won’t want to buy buildings for a while since this law changed so its possible that the prices of these buildings will fall (especially the new ones). I’m going to have to link with my real estate homies soon to get the scoop. If I get new info I’ll def share it with y’all. With all these loan delinquencies I may have to do a career switch and become a bankruptcy attorney.

   RIP BARNEY’S

8. After filing for Bankruptcy protection earlier this year, Barneys is getting sold to Authentic Brands. As a first move, they plan on closing a bunch of retail stores (which will lead to about 2000 layoffs). It’s actually looking like they’re going to close almost all of Barneys retail stores period. We will have to see how things play out. Barneys on Madison ave is closing, Barneys in LA is closing, they’re even closing this distribution center. The plan is to just license the Barneys name which to me looks like Authentic Brands is going to make a full on eCommerce move. This eCommerce thing is really the future y’all. DO NOT SLEEP. For those who don’t know who Authentic Brands is…. They own Nautical, Nine West, Juicy Couture, Tretorn, Elvis Presley Enterprises (so weird), Muhammad Ali Enterprises (even weirder) and a ton of other brands.

9. About a month ago, Andrew Wilkinson the CEO of a company who buys internet businesses wrote an article about Howard Stern and how he’s getting ripped off by Sirius XM. Essentially his thesis is that Howard Stern signed a 5 year $90 Million deal with Sirius but that if he had started a podcast and charged $5 - $10 a month combined with ad revenue he could make 10 times that. Yes. Over $900 Million dollars. All off of switching out of Sirius XM radio and building his own subscription model with under 1 million monthly listeners. He also says Joe Rogan could be the first podcast billionaire and modeled out how. It’s super interesting. If you want to read it hit the link in my bio and sign up to get the The Dime weekly. I’ll be blasting out all of the links along with all of The Dime’s from this week. If you can’t wait… just google it lol.

10. Digit has launched a feature to help people pay their student loans. It ain’t really that special though. Essentially it’s already what digit does (save your money without you knowing it) but it will focus your savings toward paying down your student loans. It’s not a marvel thing but I felt like the streets should know it since you know… mad of us got student loans and wanna pay it down while still being able to brunch every week.

The Dime (11/1) (Friday)

1. What’s good y’all. SPOOKY SZN is over. Markets took off on the first day of November. The Dow and the Nasdaq closed over 1%, the S&P closed at nearly 1% (0.91%). Markets really rallied around a really good jobs report and Trump came out with a bunch of tweets and “good news” around the China trade deal. He delivered in October, let’s hope he delivers again. I can’t front, there are a few things that make the stock market look good right now. The Federal Reserve is printing more money (usually leads to higher stock prices), more jobs are open (which usually leads to more pay/more consumer spending), but on the downside there’s less business spending on investment, high government and consumer debt and more importantly most of our trade partners aren’t looking good. I think November and December are going to be big months that will ultimately decide our fate.

   THE NEW YORK TIMES IS STRAIGHT UP WILDIN’

2. The New York Times has been annoying me all week. First they opened up the week by giving the most legendary Steakhouse in America (Peter Luger’s) zero stars. Yes, 0. Now The New York Times makes hella mistakes but usually this is one where they don’t mess up. I’m not saying they’re right here, I’m just saying that the fact that they had the balls to follow through with this shows a shift in both consumer tastes as well as total disregard for older institutions.

3. The New York Times also f*cked up here….. A legendary screenwriter Aaron Sorkin wrote an Open Letter (that was published in The New York Times) flaming Mark Zuckerberg to pieces yesterday. It was like the white version of “Boy if you don’t get!” and I can’t front I was shocked it got published. The New York Times is super tired of Mark Zuckerberg and it shows because not only did the let Aaron Sorkin go ham on Zuck but they allowed Aaron Sorkin to publish with a bunch of misstatements and outright wrong statistics. It was so bad that today’s correction section under the article was the longest I’ve seen in a while. It’s almost as if he flamed Zuck so hard that the Editor for got to edit the damn article. Either way Mark Zuckerberg came back with the greatest clapback I’ve seen in a minute. It’s so special that I have to save it for the Sunday Dime Recap (If you want to receive it by text hit the link in my bio).

   I LOVE ELIZABETH WARREN BUT SHE WORRIES ME

4. Today spicy as hell lmfao. I can’t handle it. Elizabeth Warren decided to finally let us see and understand her #MedicareForAll plan (after months of dodging) and I know I’ve been saying she’s the most qualified…. but this plan makes her look like a rookie. Like super rookie. Either she sees something I don’t see or she’s straight up buggin. After you do the math, the costs of her Medicare For All plan will cost the country $52 Trillion over 10 years. She really thinks she’s going to take $52 Trillion from companies and rich people. Dawg. She must’ve forgotten that rich people will either cut the value of their assets to avoid the taxes or renounce their citizenship altogether. There’s no loyalty in the game of money. Elizabeth Warren has written the most legendary books on Commercial and Bankruptcy law, but I don’t think she ever played Monopoly with a group of kids from Canarsie, Brooklyn. Things can get real crazy, real quick. I may still vote for her though because she says she’s wiping a majority of the student loans and I’m not trying to see my homies struggle anymore.

5. That last dime was so important I had to rant some more about it. So here’s some details on the plan (if you don’t end up reading it on Sunday’s recap). She plans on putting everyone on Medicare. We all pull up to the doctor and don’t even take out our wallets. Whether you’re pulling up for a check up, have cancer, have foot fungus, whatever bro don’t even come to the doctor with a wallet, just bring your ID. She plans on having employers contribute $8.8 Trillion, $800 billion from banks, another $1.25 Trillion from large companies, $3 Trillion from the 1% rich folks, another $2.3 Trillion from folks playing the tax game, taxing overseas profits another $1.65 Trillion. Elizabeth Warren looking at rich people like they soft. As if they didn’t get rich bending laws in the first place. I know you wrote the books on the game but come on. She acting like rich people don’t have some of the most elite lawyers period. I feel like somewhere in her game plan is closing the carried interest loophole (y’all should google that). If it is… then all of this makes sense.

   CHINA BANK RUNS

6. There’s been some real trouble brewing in China…. For the last week there’s been a run on China’s banks and today depositors were at it again. It’s really looking like some great depression activity dawg. Today the Henan Yichuan Rural Commercial bank got PRESSED by depositors for their money. They’ve spent some time using different tactics (like releasing videos showing money, having managers negotiate with depositors to hold their money for a few months) to prove that they are solvent, but guess what…. consumers are like “you gotta be smarter than that.” People are pulling up in droves to ask for their money and it’s only a matter of time until the bank says “yeah we don’t have anymore.” Clearly SPOOKY SZN just started in China.

7. Apple launched Apple TV+ today and joined the streaming wars with Netflix, HBO, Disney, Hulu, and others. If you have a new iPhone or other Apple device, there’s likelihood that you’ll get the first year free. After that you pay $4.99. Oprah’s on it. If you love her and have an iPhone to listen to the bars….. you should.

8. The Hong Kong protests have led to a recession. People are scared of the beef. Hotels are empty, tourists ain’t linking. Literally the economy is shirking at 2.9% on a year to year basis. Businesses are struggling, people are hopping on Hong Kong social media to beg consumers to buy their products. Since Hong Kong is a big tourist city the lack of travel to that city has been killing them. I’m praying things will get better soon.

9. Beto O’Rouke has dropped out of the Presidential Race. This is the first major name to do so. That’s 2 L’s in a row for that man (he ran against Ted Cruz for Senate and lost). He doesn’t plan on running for any other seats in 2020. I don’t blame him. Dude needs a break. He’s been running on 1000 for the last 3 years. Regrouping is necessary, but one thing I can say though, I think he can actually win that Senate seat in Texas. Many people from up north have been moving to Texas due to jobs and mass immigration has been changing the electoral makeup of Texas. I wish him well.

10. The Jobs report was pretty lit. We added 128,000 jobs even though the unemployment rate went up to 3.6%. But listen, it didn’t go up because the economy is dead in the water, it went up because more people who weren’t looking for jobs before are starting to look for some now. This is a good sign. So most of the job openings are in leisure/hospitality as well as healthcare. If you’re looking at which moves to make/the best way to present yourself in the eyes of healthcare companies, there’s a Raising Benjamin #MoneyMail for that. I had my homie (who’s pretty high up in the healthcare sector) work with me on the tips and tricks you need to get some good jobs in healthcare.

That’s it for this weeks recap of The Dime💰. Don’t be stingy with the 🏀. Pass it (The Dime) to a friend.

The Dime Weekly Recap 10/22

SPOOKY SZN CONTINUES

10/22: Tuesday

Markets

1.     Markets basically remained unchanged yesterday due to a mix of good performance from some stocks and horrible performance by others. McDonalds fell over 3% due to missing earnings. Boeing is getting slammed because the 737 Max got pushed back and it looks like they tried to scam the FAA. Some investors aren’t even pricing in a recession to me which is crazy because the data is there. Whatever tho.

2.     Ratings agencies are back on their bullshit. In the previous Great Recession, ratings agencies (the ones that basically give companies and governments their credit scores) basically stamped all the shitty mortgage bonds with higher ratings than they deserved. This convinced investors that the horrible mortgage bonds they were investing in were investment grade. This was part of the fuel that led to the fire which was the Great Recession. Now today Companies are borrowing at the highest levels in history and they’ve been slow to reflect that on their credit ratings. Companies are receiving inflated credit ratings and are using those ratings to borrow OD.

3.     Stocks and bonds have been moving higher in tandem this year which is rare. Usually the relationships are inversely related. The S&P is up 20% this year while bond inflows are the highest in years. This is interesting to watch. I gotta do some historical research to see how things ended up the last time this happened.

4.     SoftBank convinces the WeWork board to let them gain controlling ownership in the company. This is HUGE. Startup founders gotta be watching this in awe right now. We’ve seen CEO’s die before but never like this.

5.     PG&E is back with the blackouts. 200,000 people in California will have their power shutdown AGAIN. PG&E has been fighting both bankruptcy and the California wildfires. This is a horrible combo. Some people are considering state run energy companies in Cali due to this mess.

6.     Brands are considering cutting their influencer budgets. This year they plan on spending over $8 Billion but their starting to realize that the returns aren’t really showing for the money they pay. This Instagram shit is about to get real spooky.

“Yeah those likes are real bruh”

7.     The Federal Reserve pumped another $100 Billion into repo markets because banks are still reluctant to lend to each other at the rates the FED wants to maintain. Their target is about 2.25% and banks are still lending above that rate.

8.     Stamps.com just entered a partnership with UPS which caused its stock to soar over 22%. I’m not into breaking law but man that would’ve been a fire insider trading play.

9.     Since we’re on the subject of insider trading…. Vanity fair magazine recently released an article alluding to traders and Donald Trump doing insider trades based on Trump News. It’s probably the dumbest article I’ve read in a while. Tbh in my opinion it’s highly irresponsible. Just because your readers aren’t financial managers doesn’t mean you can make articles like that for clicks.

10.  Existing home sales in the United States fell over 2% in September. It’s either a cyclical thing or the market is getting soft. In my opinion home prices are too f*ckin high right now. Something needs to happen and fast.

 10/23: Wednesday

Markets

1.     Markets basically remained unchanged today. The bad earnings reports came in. Travelers insurance tanked off of bad earnings. Nike got it’s face punched in, Home Depot got slapped, but Apple and Merck finished at record highs and Facebook popped. It’s still SPOOKY out here.

2.     Mark Zuckerberg did decent in his congressional hearing today in DC. Congress still doesn’t know how Facebook works. Congressmen out here looking like my grandparents when they talk about social media.

3.     Adam Neumann (Former CEO of WeWork) is a LEGEND. After spending years of burning through cash, buying a bunch of fancy cribs, buying a private jet, and completely botching a $40 billion IPO….. he got a $1.7 billion payout…. WeWork is currently worth $8 Billion right now. He got paid almost 1/4th of the company to leave it behind. SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO GET A PAY PACKAGE LIKE THAT BECAUSE I WANT NEXT.

Adam Neumann be like…..

4.     California legalized weed a while ago and everyone expected it to solve a bunch of problems…. And it did… but the weed black market is STILL lit. Why? Well to go completely legal in California it can take up to 5 years. In that 5 year span it’ll cost you about $50,000 just to get all the permits and approvals to open your doors. That’s before the cost of actually setting up your business and during that 5 year period you can’t make money. Sometimes government intervention can actually make life harder.

5.     The CEO of Nike (Mark Parker) announced that he is leaving the company. (Also part of the reason why Nike got it’s ass kicked today) He is being replaced by the former CEO of eBay John Donahue. I’m not gonna lie this is actually not a bad move. We all love Mark Parker and he ushered in a fire era of branding but internal company culture at Nike still needs some fixing. Also fresh blood could be used moving forward. I actually think Nike can be better at playing the eCommerce game and Donahue is a street legend, he can help in this arena.

6.     Through Amazon’s large distribution chain people have found that Amazon sells clothing made from factories that other retailers have banned because of worker safety hazards. People are coming for Amazon from 90 different fronts but in my opinion they keep missing the target because they aren’t going after Amazon’s core business…. Amazon Web Services (their cloud based business). Amazon actually is able to subsidize all of their other businesses because of Amazon Web services. News people don’t read balance sheets, they just chase stories. Don’t let the news play with your feelings…. Search for facts.

7.     Low rated bonds (also called junk bonds aka anything rated BB- or below) are getting ignored by investors and the companies with these ratings essentially can’t get a loan. This is putting those companies in a cash crunch and pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy. Some look at this as fear, but private equity firms look at this as opportunity because they gonna buy them out via rescue plans. This play is Wall Street 80s all over again.

Good News

8.     Facebook is dedicating $1 Billion to creating affordable housing in Silicon Valley. They plan on building 20,000 housing units in the next 10 years to help alleviate homelessness and high apartment prices in the area. I don’t know why this isn’t bigger news. I’m kinda pissed about that tbh.

9.     Opportunity zone funds aren’t getting as much investment as expected. For those who don’t know…. 2 years ago the Federal Government carved out areas in the US where uou can invest in real estate and get tax breaks for making those investments. It’s partially what played a role in gentrification in big cities because areas in your hood probably qualify as opportunity zones. Aka those new buildings on your block are getting tax breaks from state, local, and the federal government. There are funds out that that can invest it for you (be careful tho), or you can invest yourself. Me and my homies made a real estate holding company to make this play… you should make a play too.

10.  Over 6000 people passed the New York State bar exam and will be newly minted lawyers soon. Fine one, keep their phone number, and build with them. As bad as people say lawyers are…. They are the gate keepers of our legal system. They write/enforce/change the laws that you and I live and follow so if you really trying to get ahead (or stay out of jail) you need one in your pocket. Congrats to those who passed the bar this month. Your hard work paid off and you deserve all the glory.

 10/24: Thursday

Markets

1.     Markets were mixed. Boeing dragged the Dow Jones down but the Nasdaq (an index led by tech companies) had a pretty good day closing 0.8% higher. The S&P basically remained unchanged.

2.     Twitter is down 20% as of the close today. Yes. You read that right. 20 f*ckin percent. I can’t believe what I’m seeing right now. Twitter missed their earnings big time. Ad revenues? DOWN. Apparently, there’s a bug in their ad system that really screwed up the metrics leading them to miss out on $50 Million in revenue. Dear God, I pray I never have a bug that lets me miss a bag that big. In your name I always pray…. Amen. I think this is a glitch tho. Tiwtter is actually a great company even though investors are worried about their long-term potential. I’m not saying buy at this price… I’m just saying that I plan on buying at this price once compliance clears my trades at work.

3.     Fannie Mae and Freddie mac (The US largest mortgage providers and effectively a government entity) are going private. The government plans on selling them back to private hands and the country’s top banks are figuring out how to raise the money. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became a government entity during the financial crisis because at the time they held the largest amount of trash mortgage bonds and the government had to save em or else the country would’ve been in ruin.

4.     Microsoft had a fire earnings season y’all. The 3rd quarter was LIT. Microsoft Azure had over $10 Billion in sales (up 27%), Microsoft office had over $11 billion (up 4%). The stock is boomin so much that the company reached a $1 TRILLION valuation. Making Microsoft the worlds most valuable company. Shoutout to @shaaztastic for making the company better. It might be his vibe helping the boost. (I’m kidding…. Maybe I’m not lol)

5.     Tesla is also boomin. Specifically the Model 3 is boomin. Out of the 97,000 cars they moved last quarter the Model 3 accounted for 82% of those sales. It might be that it’s lit, it might also be that it’s an electric car selling at $39,000 and it’s fire. It might be both… I’ll let you be the judge.

6.     It’s looking bad for the semiconductor industry (those little chips in your computers and your phones). One of the largest chip companies Texas Instruments reported horrible earnings. Sales in the 3rd quarter were down 11% and they project that sales will. That China Trade war tech hate getting to the industry. It’s getting cold out here.

7.     ISIS out here WILDIN on TikTok. These dudes been on the app posting execution and torture videos and they made it live. That’s crazyyyyyyyy. It’s the first huge issue for the new video app that’s been eating up the social media space. In my opion it’s the best standalone video app since Vine. RIP Vine.

8.     WeWork employees might actually get NOTHING for their shares of shares of stock they own in the company if they sold it today. That’s how much the company lost value in the last 2 MONTHS. Y’all lucky I don’t work for WeWork because someone woulda caught these hands.

Housing

9.     In a clever way to make the state more affordable to live Oregon passed a law in June that rezoned all cities with 25,000 or more people to allow homes with multi-family units. The max is currently 4 units. The goal is to allow more apartments to be available which in theory should bring the price down. I hope it works because hella folks are fleeing San Francisco and Silicon Valley in search of cheaper housing.

10.  I don’t know if I’m supposed to panic or not but the FED raised its minimum amount of repos (overnight loans to banks) to $120 Billion up from $75 Billion. If you’ve been following The Dime, you’ll see that the FED been blasting out nearly $100 Billion a day and yesterday they up and say “the new minimum is $120 billion a day” I’m kinda shook. Banks really ain’t lending to each other right now and the alarm is really sounding. I’m praying that this is under control.

10/25: Friday

Markets

1.     Markets were a mixed bag again today. The Dow ended lower, the S&P is flirting with all-time highs and the Nasdaq cleared out a little over half a percent. With all this earnings news things have been a little….. Spooky.

2.     Amazon didn’t have a lit of a 3rd quarter. Remember that “one-day shipping” thing? Well it’s turning out to be pricier than they though and ate into their margins. Tbh I think it’s too early to count it out. They just started it last quarter. They’ll get it right soon. They better.

Society

3.     This news is hella depressing. Fentanyl has played a role in 39% of overdoses. Yes. 39%. The states hit hardest are in the middle of our country. Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska. Please if you’re in need of help don’t hesitate to reach out to me personally yo. Too many beautiful lives are taken away by these awful ass drugs.

4.     Remember a few weeks ago when The Ivory Coast and Ghana decided to put pressure on the Cocoa market and put their farmers first? Well Nigeria and Cameroon have followed suit and even raised the stakes a little. Nigeria and Cameroon have also factored in a “Living Income Differential” which adds $450 on top of the base cocoa price in the market. This is going to push up cocoa prices and put more money in the farmers pockets. I love it. Even though chocolate is going to cost us more money….. I don’t care. #PayTheFarmers

5.     According to some statistics, business activity is slowing all over the world. This is due to uncertainty in global trade. This trade war is hitting hard. Manufacturing orders have fallen, exports have fallen. It’s getting wild and it’s only but so long until the market feels it.

Homelessness

6.     So, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development did a study and found that there are almost 80,000 homeless in New York. 80,000. And it’s crazy because living here we see them so much that it’s almost normalized. Homelessness shouldn’t be something that we look at as normal. Not in the “Number 1 Country in the world” or the “Best City in the world” that is unacceptable.  

Jobs

7.     For those out there still trying to figure out what to do for a living…. If you live in NY…. Look into Cybersecurity. In a survey of 400 companies 85% of them said they plan on hiring for cybersecurity talent in 2020. For those in the space…. Get that check!

8.     Consumer sentiment (another way of saying consumer confidence) fell in late October. Most of consumer sentiment is tied to income and jobs. There are jobs…. But they aren’t really paying well and that’s starting to reflect how we fell about shopping, investing, and other actions.

9.     The Federal Government is spending wayyyy too much money. The bidget gap has widened to nearly $1 TRILLION. Bruhhhhh. The deficit hasn’t been this high in 7 years. Trump ran on “spending less” but clearly he doing the opposite right now. The facts always.

10.  (This is an oldie) Since the trade war started something interesting has been happening. Vietnam has been one of the largest beneficiaries of the war. How? By taking all of the supply chain roles for global companies that China used to have. Soon you’re gonna start seeing more “Made in Vietnam” instead of “Made in China”. Although the benefit has been huge, the Federal Reserve found that they just aren’t large enough of a country to take China’s place. Sometimes it’s true…. A beef can lead to chicken for others. (I hope y’all caught that lmao).

Vietnam like “That’s crazy you got beef with China… So what’s good boo?”

Don’t Forget…. Don’t be stingy with the BALL…. PASS The Dime to a friend…..