📚 Student-loan forgiveness 2.0

…and the autoworker-union drive heads south (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images) Canceled debts and canceled plans   Sponsored by Yesterday's market moves Dow Jones 37,735 (-0.65%) S&P 500 5,062 (-1.20%) Nasdaq 15,885 (-1.79%) Bitcoin $63,274 (-3.71%) Dow Jones 37,735 (-0.65%) S&P 500 5,062 (-1.20%) Nasdaq 15,885 (-1.79%) Bitcoin $63,274 (-3.71%) Hey Snackers, There’s jet set, and then there’s pet set: Bark Air, a new [airline]( for dogs, will give your pup a luxury roundtrip flight for $12K. Perks include calming treats and noise-canceling ear muffs. The techy Nasdaq index sank 1.8% yesterday and Treasury yields spiked. US retail spending rose more than expected in March, adding to fears that the Fed will keep rates higher for longer. Shares of [Goldman Sachs]( and [Charles Schwab]( jumped after earnings beats.   IOU [Biden cancels $7B+ more in student-loan debt, but forgiveness is only half the battle]( IOU pt. II… President Biden enacted the latest round of student-loan-forgiveness measures on Friday, [wiping]( out $7.4B in debt. The cancellation — approved under existing programs — covers 277K Americans, many of whom had small loans (less than $12K) or had made over a decade of payments. It also benefited some teachers, librarians, and public safety workers who’d paid back loans for 10 years. With the election on the horizon, Biden has ramped up efforts to bring student-loan forgiveness back in the spotlight. - Last week: POTUS unveiled relief measures that would cut debts for 30M+ borrowers and forgive “runaway” interest (owing more in interest than the OG loan). If approved, Biden says it could go into effect this fall. - So far: The Biden admin has forgiven $153B in debt for 4.3M borrowers, but it’s a far cry from broad relief. 43M Americans still owe $1.6T in student loans. Saved by the bills… Biden campaigned on his goal of providing $10K in broad student-loan forgiveness. But after the Supreme Court struck down his 2022 forgiveness program last year, the admin’s been trying to provide relief bit by bit. In August, POTUS unveiled the SAVE repayment plan, which aims to cut monthly payments for low-income borrowers. So far, it’s erased the balances of 153K enrollees. But in the past month, two groups of Republican-led states have filed federal lawsuits against SAVE, saying it’s expensive and controversial. THE TAKEAWAY A Band Aid can’t fix a broken system… While debt forgiveness provides much-needed relief, it doesn’t address the long-term problem: college tuition and fees have more than doubled over the past 20 years — and were up 4% last year alone. Meanwhile, the new FAFSA financial-aid system has been plagued with delays and glitches. College enrollment’s dropping, and over half of Americans in a [survey]( said a four-year degree isn’t worth the cost. Sponsored by Nasdaq Complex investment concepts, demystified Invest in ideas: Today’s trading tools are vast, but they’ll only take you so far without knowledge of complex concepts. That’s why Nasdaq has built their [Investor Education Suite]( to help inform your trading activity — whether you’re just starting out or simply need a refresher. You’ve got options… The experts at Nasdaq have produced [3 guides on Options, Indexes and Annuities](, tailored to individuals who want to enhance their understanding of index-related concepts. Complete with practical examples, charts and infographics, Nasdaq’s guides are the ideal reference point for investors of all levels. Trade in the know. [Discover the Nasdaq Investor Education Suite](.* Sponsored by Nasdaq Complex investment concepts, demystified Invest in ideas: Today’s trading tools are vast, but they’ll only take you so far without knowledge of complex concepts. That’s why Nasdaq has built their [Investor Education Suite]( to help inform your trading activity — whether you’re just starting out or simply need a refresher. You’ve got options… The experts at Nasdaq have produced [3 guides on Options, Indexes and Annuities](, tailored to individuals who want to enhance their understanding of index-related concepts. Complete with practical examples, charts and infographics, Nasdaq’s guides are the ideal reference point for investors of all levels. Trade in the know. [Discover the Nasdaq Investor Education Suite](.*   ROADTRIP [The UAW drives south as the union makes the most of its Big Three momentum]( On the road again… Tomorrow, a 4K-worker [Volkswagen]( factory in Tennessee (the company’s only US plant) will begin [voting]( on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. If the UAW is successful, the plant will become the first car factory in the South to unionize through an election in 80 years — and the only unionized auto plant in the US not owned by Detroit’s Big Three ([GM](, [Ford](, [Stellantis](). It’s a major test for the UAW, which has set its sights on the South after scoring major wage gains for autoworkers last fall, following its historic [simultaneous strikes]( against the Big Three carmakers. - Horsepowered: Unionizing VW in the US could lead to higher labor costs for the Beetle icon. After last fall’s UAW deal, Ford said its production costs would rise by $900/vehicle, and GM said it expects $1.3B more in labor expenses this year. - On deck: This month, a 5K-worker [Mercedes]( plant in Alabama (making lucrative luxury SUVs) also filed to hold a union vote, which the UAW hopes will happen in May. Southern traffic’s clearing up… Organizing the South ain’t easy: VW’s plant has voted against unionizing twice in the past decade. The region’s [right-to-work laws]( (which allow workers to opt out of paying union dues) make organizing tougher. Now union popularity is surging, and the UAW has the Biden admin’s backing. 10K+ workers at 13 nonunion automakers have signed union cards with the UAW since last fall, and the union has pledged $40M toward organizing Southern plants. THE TAKEAWAY The best offense is a really good offense… The UAW’s deal with the Big Three netted union members 30%+ raises. That caught the eye of nonunion workers, and the UAW has jumped on the momentum. To hold on to workers, nonunion carmakers including [Toyota](, [Tesla](, [Honda](, and [Subaru]( have already hiked factory wages — the “UAW bump.”   Americans’ spending on books boomed during the pandemic, and it seems everyone who caught the reading bug has stayed hooked. Plot twist: some of the authors getting the most popular from the reading revival are former fan-fiction writers, including Naomi Novik and Ali Hazelwood. (Fan fiction = noncanonical stories based in established fictional worlds — like making Draco and Hermione fall in love.) Noticing the pipeline of fanfic scribe → NYT bestseller, literary agents are combing through Wattpad and other self-publishing platforms for the next big name that’ll dominate #BookTok. [Read more at Sherwood](.   What else we're Snackin' - [Teslump](: Tesla is reportedly cutting 10% of its 140K workforce. The EV giant’s deliveries slid 8% last quarter and profit margins fell as it slashed prices in the face of cooling electric demand. - [Chiplomacy](: The Biden admin said it’s giving $6.4B to Samsung to produce advanced chips in Texas. Chipetitor [TSMC]( also just received $6.6B to ramp up Stateside production as the US pushes for AI supremacy. - [Golden](: Goldman Sachs’ profit popped 28% last quarter. The standout Q1 comes after GS backtracked on its struggling consumer-lending biz and doubled down on its bread-and-butter investment banking. - [OhShoe](: [Nike](’s CEO blamed remote work for the company’s recent sales struggles. Last year, the sneaker star began to reverse course on its yearslong pivot to direct-to-consumer sales. - [VidAI](: [Adobe](’s said to be paying $120/clip for stock footage to train its text-to-video AI. Buying clips could give Adobe a copyright edge over OpenAI’s Sora, whose video training sources aren’t known.   Snack Fact of the Day d[Samsung dethroned Apple to reclaim its spot as the world’s largest smartphone seller](   Tuesday - Earnings expected from United Airlines, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Morgan Stanley, United Health, JB Hunt, and Omnicom - China quarterly GDP data released Authors of this Snacks own shares of: GM and Tesla *Advertiser's disclosure: Nasdaq® is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. 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