Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

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SEC Signals Greater Regulation of Crypto “Casinos”

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After the catastrophic collapse of the world's second largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, the SEC's Chairman, Gary Gensler, has signaled that his commission will be taking a harder line on cryptocurrency exchanges, tokens, hedge funds, and broker-dealers. Gensler made the comments about cryptocurrencies in an interview with Yahoo! Finance. When interviewer Jennifer Schonberger asked Gensler why the SEC didn't enforce the rules on the books regarding the collapse of FTX, Gensler responded: We are enforcing. The Securities and Exchange Commission, I couldn't be prouder. And it started under … [Read more...]

Your Survival Guy’s Christmas at Fort Wilderness

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When I was a kid, we traveled across the country in a 21-foot Winnebago Brave (yes, we were). When I think about how we celebrated Christmas early to spend Christmas day at Fort Wilderness in Walt Disney World, it brings a smile to my face. Writing to you from New England, where snow has been slow to catch on, it’s nice thinking about those more tropical memories. Which brings me to investing. Memories don’t always happen without a plan. You invest in your family, and you believe that it will pay off down the road. That’s certainly been the case for my parents, who put my sister and me … [Read more...]

Vanguard Does a U-Turn on Investor Activism

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After receiving pressure from investors and others, Vanguard has announced that it will withdraw from the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative. Brittany Bernstein reports in National Review: Vanguard announced Wednesday it is pulling out of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, an investment-industry effort to encourage fund firms to reach net zero emission targets by 2050. “We have decided to withdraw from NZAM so that we can provide the clarity our investors desire about the role of index funds and about how we think about material risks, including climate-related risks—and to … [Read more...]

Mike Rowe Alarmed at American Men Leaving the Workforce

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You know that Your Survival Guy is a fan of Dirty Jobs host, Mike Rowe. Rowe is a proponent of the kind of hard work that made America the world's greatest economy. Rowe has recently raised the alarm over news that 7 million American men are no longer looking for work and have left the labor pool. Rowe recently discussed the problem with Brian Kilmeade. Watch the interview below: You can see on my chart below the long-term decline in male labor force participation in America, which has dropped from a peak of 87.4% in 1949 down to 68% today. During the same period of time, female … [Read more...]

SPAC-TACULAR COLLAPSE: Billions in SPAC Deals Disappear

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You've read that Your Survival Guy doesn't invest in SPACs. The problem is that you invest, and they win. You take on risk, and the founders reap the rewards. Now investors in some well-known SPACs are suffering the consequences. Bailey Lipschultz reports on the recent SPAC failures, writing for Bloomberg: One of the SPAC industry’s most well-known sponsors and a would-be serial backer have seen deals worth $10.6 billion go up in smoke in less than an hour. Alec Gores, one of the most well-respected sponsors, said Monday that Gores Holdings VIII Inc. would not be merging with materials … [Read more...]

ESG, Richard Young, Jack Bogle, and You

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Vanguard, one of America's largest mutual fund companies, is, according to Will Hild in The Wall Street Journal, violating an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by meddling in the affairs of regulated utilities with its ESG policies. Hild writes: Americans are paying sky-high electricity rates and companies like Vanguard are making the problem worse. This week my organization, Consumers’ Research, joined 13 state attorneys general in a complaint against Vanguard at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. With more than $7 trillion in assets under management, … [Read more...]

Florida Dumps BlackRock in Fight Against ESG

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You have watched state after state push back on ESG investing as money managers use their power over the funds to pursue increasingly political ends. Florida has now joined others in pulling money out of funds at BlackRock, the money manager best known for doggedly pursuing its green agenda using ESG fund power. Angel Au-Yeung reports for The Wall Street Journal: The backlash continues for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Thursday that the state’s treasury would begin pulling out $2 billion of assets that are currently … [Read more...]

The Weaponization of Your Banking Information Against You

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Anyone who has seen the Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise film Minority Report has a decent idea of what "predictive policing" is. In the real world, cops use data analysis rather than psychic "Precogs" to predict crimes. This technology is in its infancy, but banks are now ramping up their surveillance of your actions in what they say is an attempt to predict the actions of "mass shooters." Jenny Surane reports for Law.com: Banks are developing technology to identify potential mass shooters, according to a CEO backing the push to get credit-card companies to more closely track gun … [Read more...]

Jewel of the North

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You know Your Survival Guy loves New Hampshire. Besides spending a lot of time in the Granite State, New Hampshire topped my 2022 list of Super States. Though Your Survival Guy spends most of his time in the White Mountains, New Hampshire's south is endowed with one of America's "best-run cities" in Nashua. According to WalletHub, Nashua is America's fourth best-run city. Adama McCann writes for WalletHub: The past year has been a true test of the effectiveness of local leadership. City leaders have had to facilitate the transition from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic back to a state much … [Read more...]