While You Were Working - March 13 - SmartBrief

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While You Were Working – March 13

Short sellers go shopping, a Trojan took the helm in SEC country, things not so fine at SoFi and Trump moves to help the beauticians

3 min read

Modern Money

Shopping mall

Short-sellers smell blood in the food court - Photo credit - Pixabay

Credit sharks found blood in the water around shopping malls

It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that speculators are eyeing the shopping mall sector as a target-rich environment. Online shopping has been around a long time, but the likes of Amazon have optimized the whole online shopping experience. Think about it … how many times a year do you go to a mall and buy something at a department store?

A black man ascended to the top of a regional Fed

The US elected a black man as president twice, but until Monday had never seen a black man chosen to run one of the country’s 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. Raphael Bostic, a professor at the University of Southern California, will take the helm of the Atlanta Fed. It’s been a nice couple of days for the men and women of Troy. First the USC men’s hoops team eked into March Madness and now one of their own heads to the heart of SEC country run the point for the region’s economy.

Signs of trouble surfaced at SoFi

Just the other day, SoFi announced a $500 million round of funding and plans to expand its international footprint. Today there are signs that the high-income borrowers SoFi targets with its business model are defaulting at higher rates than the company predicted. Watch this space…

Trump moved to forgive some student loans

Calm down. This story isn’t about the Trump administration moving to forgive a wide swath of the $1.2 trillion in student debt that is currently weighing down the economy and allowing parents experience the utter joy of being roommates with their college graduate kids. No, this is about the Trump administration forgiving the loans of people who went to beauty school and secretarial school more than 20 years ago. Surely this means there is forgiveness hope for all the students who more recently attended one of Trump’s for-profit schools.

Programming Note

Unlike many other attendees trapped in colder climates due to the looming blizzard, I am currently in the sky en route to FIA’s International Futures Industry Conference in Boca Raton, Fla. There is loads of great stuff on the agenda in Boca, including appearances by former UK Prime Minster David Cameron and Digital Asset Holdings CEO Blythe Masters. And, as always, all the leaders from the big financial exchanges will be there. Watch this space throughout the week for updates on all things derivatives from sunny Boca.