Howdy! Here's what's on tap in this week:

• House Financial Services Committee drills into SEC Chair Gary Gensler for 5 hours.
• The SBA opens up for lower loan amounts.
• GOAT Howard Marks provides his takeaways and lessons from SVB collapse (and what's to come).
• Being rich vs being wealthy
• and more...

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Let's goooo....

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Target acquired: SEC Chair Gary Gensler took fire for 5 hours during his hearing before the House Financial Services Committee. He was grilled on his lack of clarity in regulations, dodging questions about proposed crypto rules, disclosures, and how the SEC failed to protect basically any retail investors. (ya know... his job)

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Aaaannnd it. got. ugly.

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[note* these are clickable videos]

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Let's start with this video clip of Congressman McHenry, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

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Oh boy does Gary not like this question.

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GOP Majority Whip Rep. Emmer drills into Gensler about sending the industry overseas due to lack of regulatory clarity
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Congressman introduces bill to restructure the SEC and fire Chairman Gary Gensler.
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And the most squirm-worthy yet! (I'll leave it as a surprise)
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Needless to say, Gary did not have a good day.

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💸 Finance & Businessy STUFF

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🤑 The SBA is making it easier for entrepreneurs to access smaller dollar amounts of capital. The SBA is opening up its lending network to include more types of non-bank lenders, including fintechs, to enable this.

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🤑 Rich vs Wealthy - They are not the same. What's the difference? Find out.
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🤑 Twitter takes another step in its Cashtag revolution. They've partnered with eToro so you can click through to the platform and trade. #Yolo

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🤑 There are warning signs for small businesses struggling to borrow money as people spend less due to tighter credit conditions, and declining loan demand in the banking system.

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🤑 Big news for FBA sellers: Amazon expecting the Middle Eastern market sales to reach $8 billion by 2025. Amazon offers same-day delivery, Prime, and fulfillment options for sellers looking to tap into this market.

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🤑 Howard Marks highlights lessons learned from the SVB collapse. Key takeaway? Don't put all your eggs in one startup-filled basket.

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Of course, as always, Howard Marks shares lots of solid wisdom.

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Of particular interest to me though is the note he shared towards the end of his Memo.

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The following factors are influencing the CRE sector today:

• Interest rates are up substantially. While some borrowers benefit from having fixed interest rates, roughly 40% of all CRE mortgages will need to be refinanced by the end of 2025, and in the case of fixed-rate loans, presumably at higher rates.
• Higher interest rates call for higher demanded capitalization rates (the ratio of a property’s net operating income to its price), which will cause most real estate prices to fall.
• The possibility of a recession bodes ill for rental rates and occupancy, and thus for landlords’ income.
• Credit is likely to be generally less available in the coming year or so.
• The concept of people occupying desks in office buildings five days a week is in question, threatening landlords’ underlying business model. While workers may spend more time in the office in the future, no one knows what occupancy levels lenders will assume in their refinancing calculations.

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🤖 AI & Web3

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♦︎ New Ai Tool Cuppa rolled out a SEO optimized content creation tool. It's not quite Contentatscale, but it's free. A decent option for outlines and initial content.

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♦︎Amazon (unsurprisingly) enters the fray with the launch of Bedrock, a set of tools allowing companies to build generative Ai. This keeps getting better and better.

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♦︎Exclusible just dropped Highloop, a platform that makes it super easy for businesses to create and distribute digital collectibles, even if they don't have any technical knowledge of programming or the blockchain.

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♦︎A big boost to UX: good looking 3D modelling AR tools from Nextech to make a pretty sweet interactive customer experience.

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MEMBERS ONLY👇

Not a member? Fix that and join the waitlist here.​

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Great chats and threads from the Discord you may have missed…

• Taylor kicked off a good conversation on REITs​
• Dave and Rob riffing on doomed auto-loans​
• Huge drop for Taylor and his take on the bond market.​
• Mike shared a nice productivity find with a read-it-later solution.

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In the forum...

• Check out the Marketplace for a list businesses for sale.
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• We had a chat with Matthew Howells-Barby about the challenges of being acquired by a public company, and of course, some Crypto.

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Disclaimer: Not financial, investing or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly for information, entertainment and education purposes. Nothing in here is investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your professional advisors. Do your own research.​
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