🌞 Free Britney – September 08 2021

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00am ET. 

• Markets: European markets opened in the red as the European Central Bank hints at reducing the amount of stimulus it's pumping into the market. The ECB meets on Thursday to make its decision. Bitcoin had one of the most dramatic dumps in its young history yesterday as it dropped to $43,000 in just a few minutes. The on-chain metrics showed that large institutions bought the Bitcoin dip. 

The Lead: U.S. Economy Taps The Breaks

credit: getty

Economists had promised that the world would be open and booming again once Labor Day came and went. Well, Labor Day has come and gone. We’re not exactly booming, are we? More, we’re sort of chugging along. 

Chugging is fine, it is just not the boom that economists had hoped for. They see this as a slow-down of momentum. Supply chains are still challenged. GM can’t even make cars because they have no computer chips. Natural disasters are slowing us down. And Covid is still amongst us. 

The good news is that economists don’t think we’ll head back into a full halt. Instead, we can expect what Delta Air Lines CEO calls “choppiness.” Fits and starts. 

El Salvador's Messy Bitcoin Rollout

credit: reuters

The eyes of the world were on El Salvador’s rollout of Bitcoin as legal tender on Tuesday. It was not pretty and it reminds us why software programs have beta testers.  

El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country to adopt it as legal tender and crypto bulls were ready for a bounce. Instead, technical glitches plagued the rollout. The Salvadoran government took the dramatic step of disconnecting the crypto wallet being used for the project and announced it was running tests.

Whoops!

Imagine millions of people suddenly being locked out of their money. Not a great first impression. As a result, Bitcoin plunged as much as 17% to $43,050, its lowest level in almost a month. 

When asked whether the rocky launch of El Salvador’s crypto project will affect the adoption of Bitcoin more broadly, Bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz said the technical glitches will be smoothed out over time.

Sponsor: ScoreMaster

Did you know that the average American has 97 points they could add to their credit score — but no idea how to get them? The data scientists at SCORE MASTER cracked the code on how! Adding 97 points to your credit score is like found money. It means fast loan approvals, huge discounts and low interest rates on everything from buying or refinancing a home – to leasing a new car – to applying for a credit card. 

• A better credit score gives you easier access to loans, more borrowing power and better rates. Before you apply for a loan, financing, appliance or even an apartment, use ScoreMaster® first to get a better deal & save money.

• ScoreMaster® lets you save a precise Plan that is unique for your credit situation showing you how much to pay and to which account. 

How fast is SCORE MASTER? One member raised his credit score 33 points in just 5 days. Another 43 points in a couple of weeks! SCORE MASTER is so easy it takes about a minute to get started. And if you hurry – you get to try SCORE MASTER for free! That’s right, try SCORE MASTER free — and see how many plus points you can add to your credit score! Go to scoremaster.com/invest/

Mexico Decriminalizes Abortion

credit: reuters

While American states roll back the clock on women’s rights, Mexico is going in the opposite direction. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled unanimously that making abortion a crime is unconstitutional. This from a country that is predominantly Catholic. 

Previously, a law in two states said that anyone who had an abortion or participated in an abortion could face between one and three years in prison. The court ruled that this law is unconstitutional for all states. 

“From now on, it will not be possible, without violating the criteria of the Court and the Constitution, to prosecute any woman who has an abortion in the circumstances that this Court has considered valid,” said Mexico chief justice Arturo Zaldívar.

This means that people who were imprisoned for this can now be released. It does not mean that legal abortions will start right up though. Only four states have allowed it prior to this ruling. 

Should We Change It To a 'Bachelorettes' Degree? 

credit: getty

Why are men opting out of going to college? One expert told the Wall Street Journal that very soon, two women will earn a college degree for every man that does. 

Enrollment for male students has been dropping precipitously for years. For the 2020-2021 academic year, 60% of college students were women, compared to 40% of men. When national enrollment dropped by 1.5 million students, men made up 71% of that number. Why? 

The answer may be the sum of many parts. Universities that have spent years trying to promote equal access to all groups of race, class and gender now find that they need to promote access to the group they started with: men. But who wants to spend money and effort promoting men these days? As the WSJ points out, “there is scant campus support for spending resources to boost male attendance and retention.”

It could also be that men realize that university is not the return on investment it once was and they don’t want to start their adult lives with debt. These are reasonable concerns but many boys who feel this way don’t really have a solid alternative plan. One guidance counselor called this a “hope deficit.” 

It just goes to show that every group needs to be seen, marginalized or not. 

News By The Numbers

100. That’s how many days of our lives we waste trying to find something to watch on television. 

2X. Young people are nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack when they consume any form of cannabis. A new study looked at people under the age of 45 and found no difference between using edibles, vaping, or smoking. 

700 million. That’s how many users TikTok has as it just dethroned YouTube as the most-watched video app in the world. Not too shabby considering YouTube has 2 billion users. 

The Death of The Fax Machine

credit: giphy

One silver lining of the pandemic is that it may help the world finally get rid of the blasted fax machine. 

Many public health systems still relied on the fax machine when the pandemic began. Positive tests were faxed to health officials for reporting and tracing and then a human had to type that information into a database. When positive tests started rolling in like a tidal wave, health officials finally asked themselves, “Why are we still using this monstrosity?” 

One Canadian researcher told the BBC, “Fax machines don't scale. It's either the line is open or not. There was a complete backlog of busy signals and they just couldn't handle the capacity that came in through Covid.” 

In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Health proposed legislation to permanently ditch the fax machine and DVD discs. Other countries are finally re-thinking the use of pagers to reach on-call doctors. Pagers! 

Yet the fax machine still has some allies. It cannot be hacked and recent events have shown us that server-based communication systems can.

Today's Live Show

MORNING INVEST LIVE

Join us on today's live morning show at 9AM as we look at El Salvador's botched Bitcoin rollout, why the U.S. economy is screeching to a halt, and workers are demanding higher wages. Click here to RSVP and I'll see you at 9:00 AM Eastern. 

Share The Love

Become a friend of Morning Invest by sharing this newsletter with someone you love.

When you do, we don’t just give you a pat on the back and say, “Well done old sport.” We give you actual rewards that’ll make everyone jealous.

Hit the button below to learn more and access your Reward Dashboard. 

Share Now

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:

[AFFILIATE_URL]