Tony H. writes, “I just switched my 30-year home mortgage to ‘student loan.’ Follow me for more financial advice.” I have been fielding questions about the impact of student loan forgiveness on credit (probably won’t impact credit scores) but also whether the forgiven debt is taxable (not at the Federal level, but Forbes thinks it may be at the state level in some places). While the government is intervening, wouldn’t it be nice if someone put a cap on college cost escalation? The government doesn’t directly determine compensation or profit margins, but both are huge issues for lenders. (“Lenders are Eying Compensation and Ops Trends” is the current STRATMOR blog.) The government doesn’t directly determine the rate of inflation either, but the Federal Reserve can address it. During his Jackson Hole speech, Powell said that the Fed will continue raising interest rates and hold them at a higher level until it is confid
Crypto and blockchain technologies have some valid applications but when it’s just for investment, there are tons of scams. (And what would we do for passwords if it weren’t for our pets?) Since the dawn of history people have been trying to take things of value from others. The industry is discussing the latest breach, especially as it seems, once again, that “it is not a matter of if but of when.” “Flagstar Bank recently became aware of a privacy breach that occurred during December 2021 involving unauthorized access to Flagstar Bank’s network. Flagstar Bank is in the process of providing their impacted customers with written notice of this privacy breach. The written notice includes an offer of free credit monitoring by Kroll, subject to the customer’s enrollment in the monitoring offer. Impacted customers can call Flagstar Bank at (855) 503-3384, or impacted customers may also obtain additional information online.” (Today