bitcoin is back above 50000 for the first time since may crypto bulls have naturally celebrated the milestone and there is optimism the world’s largest cryptocurrency could climb to fresh alltime highs and beyond a word of caution though the coin’s path so far this year is a stark reminder if one was needed of bitcoin’s crazy volatility after climbing from 30000 to its april peak of nearly 65000 in just over three months bitcoin lost more than half of its value over the next three months the rebound from below 30000 to 50000 has taken just over a month a volley of bad news was behind bitcoin’s collapse china’s crypto crackdown other regulatory pressures and environmental concerns those problems have not gone away at all—the wall street journal this weekend profiled the great “mining migration” by crypto miners to relocate outside of china but sentiment has shifted rapidly helped by bullish comments from highprofile backers including tesla ceo elon musk twitter ceo jack dorsey and ark invest ceo cathie wood as well as the increased adoption of bitcoin worldwide securities and exchange commission chairman gary gensler’s comments signaling the potential pathway for bitcoin etfs albeit under strict rules is another key factor paypal’s decision on sunday to launch its cryptocurrency service in the uk the first country outside the us is just the latest piece of good news boosting momentum on this week’s barron’s streetwise podcast columnist jack hough tackles listener questions including whether investing has fundamentally changed listen here us enrolls private airlines to help in kabul evacuation the us government sunday requisitioned aircraft from six commercial airlines to help evacuate people from afghanistan illustrating the challenges washington is facing after the takeover of the country by taliban forces   the us department of defense said that a total of 18 planes from omni air hawaiian airlines and will help transport evacuees from transit airports or us military bases across the world after they have been evacuated from kabul   the commercial airplanes “will not fly into hamid karzai international airport in kabul” the release said they will help evacuate “us citizens and personnel special immigrant visa applicants and other atrisk individuals” from afghanistan   president joe biden said in an address from the white house sunday afternoon that the airlines had voluntarily signed up for the socalled civil reserve air fleet program mirroring the berlin airlift after world war ii what’s next the pentagon said it didn’t “anticipate a major impact” to the private airlines from the order which marks the third time the craf has been activated after being used in 19901991 and 20022003 during the first and second iraqi wars nine centrist democrat representatives remain in a standoff with house speaker nancy pelosi over when to vote on the roughly 1 trillion infrastructure bill threatening her plans to pass it in tandem with a 35 trillion budget framework   the house of representatives returns to washington dc monday the group of nine urged pelosi to advance the two proposals separately and vote on the first bill immediately “let’s get a big win restore america’s faith that despite our differences we can actually get stuff done” said rep kurt schrader d ore   other democrats including pelosi are adamant that the house pushes both plans forward together with a vote on the larger package first doing so could increase pressure on centrist democrats who have questioned the larger bill’s cost   pelosi can lose no more than three democrats in these votes she warned democrats saturday night that “any delay to passing the budget resolution threatens the timetable for delivering the historic progress and the transformative vision that democrats share” the wall street journal reported   the 35 trillion budget package would broaden the nation’s safety net through subsidized child care paid family leave expanding medicare to cover dental vision and hearing care universal prekindergarten free community college and other measures what’s next pelosi has scheduled a vote monday night to procedurally advance both the infrastructure bill and the budget framework saying in her letter that the house aims to enact both bills before oct 1 what to expect from the fed’s jackson hole meeting later this week the federal reserve said it would convene virtually this week for its 2021 economic policy symposium typically held in jackson hole the kansas city fed cited the “recently elevated covid19 health risk level” including a high risk of transmission in teton county wyo dozens of central bankers policy makers and economists had planned to meet in person   the fed’s decision to go online for the second straight year offers a realtime reflection of how officials see the economy’s largest wild card economists at oxford economics say their recovery tracker a mashup of about two dozen indicators has stalled as consumers become more cautious and overall mobility declines   since the federal open market committee’s meeting last month the july employment report showed a 943000 jump in nonfarm payrolls while the jobless rate dropped to 54 but consumer sentiment retail sales and housing starts have all been weaker than expected   fed chairman jerome powell last wednesday acknowledged the risk from the delta variant and future mutations on the economy “as long as covid is running loose out there as long as there’s time and space for the development of new strains no one’s really finally safe” he said   powell will deliver his keynote address friday at 10 am eastern his speech will be livestreamed via the kansas city fed’s youtube channel as well as barron’s website what’s next investors will watch powell’s keynote for any update on the fed’s plans to wind down the roughly 120 billion in monthly treasury and mortgagebacked securities purchases it launched in response to the pandemic fed officials last month were split on when and how aggressively to begin reducing those purchases the food and drug administration could fully approve pfizer  biontech’s covid19 vaccine this week opening the door for more employers and universities to require vaccinations and potentially boosting vaccinations among people with misgivings about the safety of coronavirus vaccines   that full approval could come as early as today as regulators worked to accelerate an unofficial timeline of approval around labor day according to multiple news reports citing people familiar with the agency’s planning   it would mean that 13 million us military members must get inoculated defense secretary lloyd austin told troops earlier this month that they must get vaccinated by sept 15 or as soon as the fda grants full approval of the vaccine “whichever comes first”   the city of san francisco has told its employees that as soon as the vaccines are fully authorized by the fda they must get inoculated or risk losing their jobs about 750 us colleges and universities are requiring vaccines of at least some students or employees   as of sunday 1708 million americans were fully vaccinated 515 of the total population per the centers for disease control and prevention the us reported 128902 new coronavirus infections and 1001 deaths on saturday according to johns hopkins university what’s next once their vaccine gets full approval pfizer and biontech are planning to ask regulators to approve a third dose as a booster full approval would make the vaccine eligible for offlabel prescriptions and allows the company to start marketing it to doctors providers and the public the wall street journal reported undervalued uk stocks in focus after apollo’s mooted bid for grocer sainsbury’s reports that the us privateequity fund apollo may be “running the rule” over jsainsbury sent shares in britain’s secondlargest supermarket roaring more than 11 monday apollo is already in a bid battle with a rival privateequity firm for control of wm morrisons another retailer   the sunday times reported that apollo remains keen on the uk retail sector after having failed to take control of asda once owned by earlier this year for now its interest in sainsbury’s was reported to be “exploratory”   shares of other uk retailers increased in the wake of sainsbury’s monday morning with and up about 2 in a uk market up 04 as measured by the   apollo is for now focused on a battle for morrisons where it is eager to join a consortium of fortress group to wrestle control away from buyout fund clayton dubillier  rice what’s next the uk stock market has massively underperformed european and us markets both this year and over the last three years investors feeling the european and us markets are now fully valued may be looking at uk equities with a fresh eye marketwatch wants to hear from you in this week’s big move column a reader asks ‘i’m 60 and i’m considering paying off the 250000 mortgage on my home i have 1 million in company stock and 1 million in my 401k and i plan to work until i’m 67 at which point i’ll receive a pension of 8000 per month should i sell the company stock to pay off the house’ a marketwatch correspondent will answer this question soon meanwhile send any questions you would like answered to thebarronsdailybarronscom