One of the biggest railroad workers’ unions in the U.S. voted “no” on the proposed national contract, making a rail strike more likely. A strike could occur any time after Dec. 5 and shippers say it would cause a big headache for just about everyone. Twelve unions must approve the contract but, at the moment, it does not look likely that will happen. These contract talks have been dragging on for more than a year. 

What a difference a year makes. A year ago, stores warned they might be short on a lot of items people wanted to buy for Christmas. Now retailers say they may be overstocked because, fearing supply issues again, they ordered too much stuff this year. Shoppers may be the beneficiaries because stores will have to offer significant sales to clear their warehouses.

The Biden administration’s federal student loan forgiveness program is tied up in the federal courts, so why are millions of borrowers getting emails saying their forgiveness is approved? The Justice Department says it is confident the Supreme Court will see things Biden’s way so the government is sending notices to the millions of student loan borrowers who have been approved for loan forgiveness and is telling them that the debt will vanish as soon as the Supreme Court rules. If the Court does not go along, the disappointment might sting more. It would be like, “You were this close to getting $20k of debt washed off the books.”

Lots of you hit the road tomorrow for vacation travel and some of you may be about to spread the flu, RSV, COVID-19 and other viral funk along the way. I will show you the latest map of flu cases. Only a handful of areas aren’t classified as moderate- or high-risk.