The Party is Over – Refi Applications Plunge to Two-Year Low as Rates Surge

Even for a week containing a holiday, last week was a bad one. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, fell 7.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6 percent compared to the previous week. The week ended January 21 started with the observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday although MBA did not indicate it adjusted its data to account for it.

The Refinance Index decreased 13 percent from the previous week and was 53 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity declined to 55.8 percent of total applications from 60.3 percent the previous week, the lowest for refinancing since Christmas week 2019.

Read more

House passes landmark marijuana legalization bill

The House passed legislation Friday that would legalize marijuana nationwide, eliminating criminal penalties for anyone who manufactures, distributes or possesses the substance.

Lawmakers approved the measure in a 220-204 vote.

The legislation, dubbed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, passed in the House last year, but did not move forward in the Senate. In addition to decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level, the bill would establish procedures for expunging previous convictions from people’s records and impose a tax on the sale of cannabis products.

Read more

BioNTech posts $3.6B net profit

BioNTech, the German pharmaceutical company that teamed with Pfizer to develop the first widely used COVID-19 vaccine, on Wednesday reported strongquarterly earnings growth on pandemic-fueled demand. The company posted net profit of nearly $3.6 billion for the final three months of 2021, up from $409 million in the same period the previous year. Quarterly revenue … Read more

1 in 5 workers runs out of money before payday, survey finds

As the cost of living rises, some American households are stretched too thin. Now, roughly 1 in 5 workers cannot make it from paycheck to paycheck, according to a report. From gas to groceries, soaring prices are straining households across the board. More than three-quarters of working Americans said inflation has impacted their finances over … Read more

Restaurant Review – Rusty’s Seafood and Oyster Bar – Port Canaveral

Rusty’s Seafood & Oyster Bar is located in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Happy hour EVERY DAY from 3 to 6 PM and early bird items served from 11 AM to 6 PM every day!! Rusty’s also has LIVE entertainment every night as well as during the days on weekends. Founded in 1993, Rusty’s Seafood & Oyster Bar is a fresh seafood restaurant with a full liquor bar, featuring an oyster bar for live shucking inside and a large deck and tiki bar for outside seating. Rusty’s offers steamed clams and mussels, raw or steamed oysters by the dozen and half-dozen as well as fresh baked oysters Bernard. .

Rusty’s is about an hour away from Orlando to the east.
Established in 1992. The Fischer family arrived in Port Canaveral in the 1940’s where they opened a seafood distribution plant, the “Fischhouse.” From there they began the offshore fishing fleet of the Miss Cape Canaveral, and thus began the term “From our fishing fleet, to you!” Bernard Fischer, the uncle of Rusty Fischer and the great uncle of son, Rhett Fischer, opened Bernard’s Surf in 1948, where they served celebrities, chocolate covered ants and astronauts. Rusty, while running The Surf, then opened Rusty’s Seafood and Oyster bar in the Port in 1992, and now his son Rhett Fischer runs the business and their 60 employee’s.

My wife and I had planned to go out to Rusty’s several times over the last several months, however, food adventures on the coast can be a challenge when we have other things going on, particularly during Covid. We literally had nothing going on this particular weekend so we decided to head out for some early shopping then out to the coast for yet another food adventure.

Read more