Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Abusement Park

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All the world’s atwitter about Disneyworld reopening. I have fond memories of the place as a kid, but good Lord, looking at the treacle-sweet promotions that Disney is cranking out, seeing every single employee wrapped in a face mask is off-putting. Below is a promotional video Disney put together to show what a swell time everyone was going to have, but some earnest chap overdubbed it with the truth.

GSE Developments

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Three major GSE developments over the last 10 days will greatly impact the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Dick Bove of Odeon Capital outlined the three GSE developments in a recent note.

The biggest GSE development is the Seila Law case, although the ruling was directly aimed at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. The Supreme Court ruled that although the CFPB might be legal, the position of its director is not.

Bove explained that the Supreme Court justices believe the Constitution should be interpreted as it is written and amended and that the laws of Congress should be followed as written. He also said that they fear bureaucrats aren’t following the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress.

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Asset Managers and the SBA

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The Small Business Association’s (SBA)’s Payroll Protection Program (PPP) handed out loans to small businesses, but it isn’t just small businesses getting the loans. Criticism of the program continues as officials released details on hundreds of thousands of businesses that received PPP loans from the SBA, many of which will be forgivable.
The Payroll Protection Program was designed to bail out small businesses impacted by the pandemic, but many firms that took the bailout money weren’t impacted by the pandemic.

The SBA’s PPP loans were supposed to be for small businesses that had to shut down during the pandemic. However, many large businesses, including asset management firms that didn’t actually shut down, are taking the loans.

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