Today's Scoop:

Hey friends - hope our Canadian readers are doing okay. Readers in the Northeastern US, be aware of hazardous air conditions from massive wildfires.

Here’s what you need to know today…

1. The stock market is riding high.

2. US regulators are cracking down on crypto.

3. The student loan payment pause is coming to an end.

S&P 500: 4,283.85
1Mo: +4% | 1Yr: +3% | 5Yr: +54%

The market floated to the highest close of 2023 today without much major economic news. Stocks have marched higher all year, now approaching the highest point since last April.

US regulators are cracking down on crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the two biggest cryptocurrency exchanges this week - Binance yesterday and Coinbase today. The SEC says that crypto tokens are securities and both platforms were operating as unregistered securities exchanges. Regulators complained Binance and Coinbase need to follow the same investor protection and disclosure rules as stock exchanges.

Student loan payments will restart again in September after a three-year pause. During the pandemic, President Trump suspended federal student loan payments, allowing borrowers to hang on to their savings. President Biden extended it. The pause was officially terminated as part of the debt ceiling deal over the weekend.

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• Moderna & Merck’s skin cancer vaccine reveals breakthrough

• Amazon fires another union organizer [🤓]

• PG&E pays for starting wildfires

• Apple reveals its first major innovation in almost a decade

• Spotify cuts staff to tame podcast spending

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Labor unions

A labor union is an organization of workers that band together to collectively bargain for improvements to their working conditions, wages, and benefits. Any industry can have a union. It starts by hosting some form of election in the workplace to acknowledge that the workers of that unit would like to unionize. Then, it expands to a more formalized agreement and negotiation process. Employers can dissuade workers from unionizing, but it's illegal to threaten or coerce. That grey line in between is for the lawyers.

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