Some things are fortuitous. For example, if Sting hadn’t been in Montserrat windsurfing when Dire Straits was recording “Money for Nothing,” would we have ever heard the iconic “I want my MTV” 38 years ago? Some things don’t go so smoothly, like insurance in places like California and Florida. Farmers Insurance is the latest home insurer to pull out of Florida’s market, labeling the move as a business decision that was “necessary to effectively manage risk exposure,” per the company’s statement provided to Fortune. Shortly after, AAA announced it’d reduce its presence in Florida. And some things are neither fortuitous nor bad, but just are. Occasionally I am asked about branch models, especially as companies, realizing that summer is passing with no huge uptick in sales and no great reduction in interest rates, are once again examining overhead and what kind of branch makes the most sense. I turned to STRATMOR
“The world is going to come to an end tonight at midnight. Tune in tomorrow to see if it did!” Sensationalist headlines or bad predictions are tiresome at best, misinformation at worst. There is actual news, however. For example, thank you to the Knowledge Coop’s Ken Perry who sent along the latest in the Matter of ICE and Black Knight. LOs and underwriters know that the Supreme Court overturned the Biden administration’s student-debt forgiveness plan which would have wiped off $430B in loans from the government's books, and people who worked hard to pay off their debt cheered. Although there are already some alternatives that are in the making, this carries huge implications for inflation, consumer discretionary spending, and the distribution of wealth in the U.S. In other news, the latest update on inflation in the U.S. is this week with June’s Consumer Price Index report. Economists forecast headline inflation to fall to 3.0 percent from 4.