đ¨đł China is warning Canada not to copy the U.S. and mess with Taiwan.
đŞđš Fighting erupted in Ethiopia, squashing hopes of peace talks between the government and the Tigray party.
đ Researchers in Italy found a man who tested positive for Covid, HIV and monkeypox all in the same day following a trip to Spain. He is otherwise known as the unluckiest guy on the planet.
đĽA whistleblower filed an SEC complaint against Twitter around privacy and security practices. Elon Musk is watching!
đ¨ The Justice Department released a memo from the Mueller investigation justifying why former President Trump should not be indicted for obstruction of justice.
MARKETS
Bitcoin
$21,692.79
-0.27%
Ethereum
$1,705.34
-0.11%
Cardano
$0.4651
-0.32%
Dow
32,969.23
+0.18%
S&P
4,140.77
+0.29%
Nasdaq
12,431.53
+0.41%
*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00am ET. .
The Biden Administration announced a student loan forgiveness program on Wednesday. The program will forgive $10,000 in student loans for people who make less than $125,000 per year and $20,000 for those who used Pell Grants.
Usually loan forgiveness is taxed as income but the administration will allow this loan forgiveness to go untaxed. The White House says that this means about 15 million people who have a balance of $10,000 or less would see that wiped away from their balance sheet.
That is nice for some but it is not nice for all. According to the Penn Wharton model, this will cost taxpayers $329 billion over the next 10 years. It also clearly upsets people who either paid off their own loans through extreme sacrifice or chose not to go to college to avoid debt.
Also, does it prevent future students from taking on debt? No. Does it provide an underwriting system to help student loans be less predatory? No. Does it change the loan system so that it can be discharged by bankruptcy? No. Does it mean that universities will keep costs down? No. So it’s one-time assistance to people with student debt? Yes. Okay then.
Is there a climate emergency or isn’t there? Is it time to stop politicizing the environment and make rational policy?
Over 1,100 scientists have signed a declaration declaring that “There is no climate emergency.” Those words would have once pissed me off but after reading this book, I am convinced that there is a better way to deal with this and politicians are not on the right track. We spoke to author Bjorn Lomborg on Wednesday’s show to talk about the actual science around climate change, which is real, and how panic and politics are harming the poor, not helping the earth and costing billions. Not to mention alienating climate junkies like me unnecessarily!
The declaration in question says that these scientists “strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050 [and instead] go for adaptation instead of mitigation.”
But, but…the solar panels! The electric cars! The Inflation Reduction Act, which politicians say will save the planet. Those things will not save the planet. They will just make us feel better and keep us fighting with each other. Climate change is real but (surprise!) allowing the media and politicians to freak us out will not do a damn thing.
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Japan is reconsidering nuclear power. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a plan to research the construction of new nuclear reactors.
Nuclear is a scary word and associated with terrible disasters. The 2011 Fukushima disaster was caused by an earthquake but engineers say that nuclear plants have become more equipped for that in the last 10 years. Nightmares about Chernobyl are also valid but recall that Chernobyl was caused by an experiment from engineers inside the plant. It was not human or machine error.
Nuclear is a far cheaper and greener form of energy than fossil fuels. It kills fewer people per unit of energy production. As geopolitics has disrupted fossil fuel-based energy, more countries are rethinking their stance on nuclear power in order to become less dependent on foreign imports. Nuclear power would be a boon for the Japanese economy if they can get it right. We discussed the pros and cons of nuclear energy in this segment.
Apple Event is trending because Apple will host an event to presumably launch new iPhones and new Apple Watches on September 7.
Bill Cosby is trending because people are comparing the age of famous people when they went to prison in a conversation around whether or not former President Trump is too old to go to prison. Cosby was 81 when he went to prison. Bernie Madoff was 71. Donald Trump is 76. It’s just something to fight about on Twitter.
Virgo is trending because Virgo season started this week and you better belieeeeeeeeeeve we’ve got our pencils sharpened in this house with two Virgos including a Virgo mom!
Harvard is trending because former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio will join the university as a senior fellow at the School of Public Health and a visiting fellow at the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
News By The Numbers
$1,879. That is the median rent payment in the U.S., up 12.3% from last year.
124. That is how many tracks are on the lost new box set album of Blondie featuring 36 previously unreleased recordings plus a 144-page commentary by all original band members. It weighs 17 pounds.
5 hours. That is how long travelers were stuck in the Eurotunnel passage between England and France this week when trains were evacuated. This is a tunnel under the sea. No thank you!
Doggie Tears of Joy
I had an anthropology professor who swore that animals do not love their owners; they are just loyal out of instinctual self-preservation. I call bullshit on that theory, and so does a new study that shows that dogs cry tears of happiness when they are reunited with their owners.
Researchers studied the tear ducts of 22 dogs after they’d been separated from their owners for five to seven hours. When the owners came back, the tear production increased by 10% and the dogs produced oxytocin, the hormone known to be associated with emotional bonding.
That professor can eat a dog bone! My dog loves me!
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