A miracle. Some actual good news.

The economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter. Core inflation, the Fed's favorite gauge, came in at 3.0% for August, lighter than expected. And private employers added 90,000 jobs in September, beating forecasts, per ADP.

Three wins in one week. Surely it won't last.

Trump announced the biggest steel plant in US history. Mesabi Metallics plans to sink about $15 billion into an Iowa plant, opening in 2030 with an estimated 1,750 full-time jobs. Made in America, eventually.

Justice Samuel Alito pulled a surprise reversal and recused himself from next week's major climate case against Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy. Environmental groups pushed for it over his stock in oil companies not involved in the suit. They got their wish.

Election crime arrests keep piling up while Democrats insist it "just doesn't happen." Ten foreign nationals were indicted in Minnesota alone. AG Todd Blanche calls enforcement "fundamental to our democracy."

And Trump has some buyer's remorse. He says he regrets nominating Justices Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh after they ruled against him. His words: "I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often." Turns out a lifetime appointment means they don't have to call you back.

Michael Burry, the "Big Short" guy, is moving up his timeline on the AI crash. He's now betting against key AI names on a shorter clock, citing an Ares Management report that says the boom depends on companies never cutting their AI spending. His take: the bubble may burst "sooner than later."

He might have company. Goldman Sachs says about 45% of S&P 500 stocks now move opposite the index. Translation for normal people: half the market isn't along for the ride. That kind of split doesn't usually go unnoticed for long.

Meanwhile, Robinhood is going the other way. Longer trading hours, crypto perpetuals, and AI-powered automated trading, all unveiled at its summit in Houston. Because if the market's getting shaky, the answer is obviously more leverage at 2 a.m.

And if you're house hunting, sellers are finally blinking. 20.8% of listings now carry a price cut, the highest share this year and ahead of 2025's pace. Mortgage rates are keeping buyers on the bench, and sellers are starting to come to them.

PepsiCo is raising prices on Doritos, Ruffles, and some of its sodas. The same chips it cut prices on earlier this year. So much for affordable snacks. That promise lasted about as long as an open bag of Doritos.

LeBron James hasn't played a game for the 76ers yet, and he's already paying off. Consulting firm Boyd Company says his first full season in Philly could pump $250 million to $430 million into the regional economy. Not bad for a guy who's 41.

Nike is cutting jobs again after its China revenue dropped 26%, and the company warns it gets worse before it gets better. Disney is reportedly laying off a few hundred workers across multiple departments, too.

And OpenAI is delaying a new AI model because its own researchers raised security concerns. When the people building it want to tap the brakes, that's worth noticing.

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Last Week:

We asked: Rent forever or buy at today's prices?

Your answer is a distress signal. 73% of you said rent and invest the difference. Let the landlord fix the roof.

When three out of four readers pass on the American dream, it's not the dream that changed. It's the price tag.

This Week:

An 81-year-old Texas man went viral delivering lost luggage to pay his wife's cancer bills. Strangers donated over $700,000. Then GoFundMe found out the "kind neighbor" who started the fundraiser was actually his daughter using a fake name. She says every other detail was true. GoFundMe pulled the page and refunded every donor anyway. This from a platform that's let some pretty questionable fundraisers stay up over the years.

Winners:

Costco Members — Costco got $184 million in tariff refunds and, instead of pocketing it, used much of it to cut prices across its warehouses. A corporation giving money back to customers. Frame it.

Second Homeowners in New York — A judge struck down Mamdani's highly unpopular second home tax. New York millionaires can unclench.

Losers:

American Farmers — Experts agree farming is in a painful recession. Record diesel prices, lost export markets, soaring fertilizer costs from two wars, and higher interest rates on the loans that get them to harvest. Farm bankruptcies are up 20% in a year, and one industry attorney says the worst is yet to come.

Woke Georgia Democrat — The party's candidate for Georgia governor got caught sending her kids to an elite $40,000-a-year academy, while her party fights programs that help less wealthy kids attend private schools. School choice for me, not for thee.

You owe a bill. The only way to pay it is online. And for that privilege, they charge you a "service fee." Pay a fee to pay a bill you can't pay any other way? That's not a service. That's a junk fee, and it should be illegal.

More Americans are raiding their portfolios just to cover everyday spending. In the three months ending in April, 8.2% of people moved money from investments into checking, according to the JPMorganChase Institute. That's double 2019 and more than triple 2015. Those transfers now cover 6.8% of spending. Retirees and top earners lead the pack, but it's rising across every age and income group.

Translation: The nest egg is turning into the grocery fund.

Visa and Mastercard agreed to a proposed $167 million settlement over ATM fees. The class action, Burke v. Visa, claims their network rules blocked independent ATM operators from charging less, so consumers paid more to pull out their own cash. Millions who paid fees at independent ATMs could qualify for a share. Both companies deny wrongdoing and settled without admitting liability.

Translation: You paid extra to take out your own money. Now some of it might come back.

Rocket Mortgage is the first lender to make VantageScore 4.0 its preferred credit model for all eligible loans. The change could help buyers who've struggled to qualify under traditional scores finally get approved. In testing, some borrowers saved an average of $1,600 at closing.

Translation: Same buyer, new math, and suddenly the bank says yes.

Trump started sending $500 checks September 30 to more than 950,000 Americans across 30 states. His administration says they were overcharged through the Affordable Care Act's federal exchange. Each check comes with a letter signed by Trump. His message: the Biden administration overcharged you to fund HealthCare, and "now I'm returning it to you!"

Translation: The government found money it shouldn't have taken. Somebody frame this one too.

America is running out of plumbers, electricians, and HVAC techs. Home Builders Institute CEO Ed Brady says the industry is losing skilled workers faster than it can replace them, and it's dragging down homebuilding, infrastructure, and commercial projects. His fix: train more young people and veterans for careers that can pay six figures.

Translation: Everyone wants a laptop job. Nobody wants to fix the AC. Guess who's getting paid.

A Texas barber walked up to a Bank of America ATM in Lewisville and found two bags sitting on top. Inside: $128,514 in cash and 19 checks. His first thought? It belonged to the Chick-fil-A next door. So he drove over to give it back. When police arrived, not a single dollar was missing.

Translation: Somewhere a Chick-fil-A manager owes this man free nuggets for life.

In 2024, a Georgia woman spent her life savings on a $122,500 condo outside Atlanta. Her closing documents showed no HOA balance. Less than a year later, the HOA moved to foreclose, claiming she owed $8,000, including fees from years before she bought the place. That bill has since grown to about $20,000. The strange part? The HOA had been inactive for nearly three years when she bought. It came back to life a month after she moved in.

Translation: She bought a condo and somehow inherited the last owner's tab.

Trump's ban on Canadian whisky and other booze is now in effect, cutting off $800 million a year in alcohol imports from our northern neighbor. It's the latest shot in a trade war that's already brought sky-high tariffs and pulled American liquor off shelves in Ontario. But don't panic just yet. Distributors stockpiled before the deadline, and anything shipped in containers over four liters is exempt. Crown Royal ships in bulk and bottles on US soil, so it could walk away untouched.

Translation: The ban is real. Your Crown Royal will be fine.

Americans are finally drinking less after the pandemic. Overall alcohol use is down nearly 2% since 2022, and heavy drinking fell more than 8%, according to a USC study. Except for one group. Adults 50 to 64 bumped their drinking up nearly 4% since 2018, and heavy drinking in that group jumped more than 36%.

Translation: The kids are cutting back. Their parents are picking up the slack.

NorthPoint Development wants to build a 1,300-acre data center in the Pocono foothills near Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. To sweeten the deal, it's offering $10,000 checks to 4,500 households. In a town where the median income is $60,000, that's real money. Locals aren't biting. They're worried about property values, round-the-clock hum from the facility, and they don't trust the AI moguls or their own local officials.

Translation: You can't buy a town's trust. But apparently somebody thought 10 grand a house was worth a shot.

Event: Supreme Court Opens New Term
Date: Monday, October 5
Info: The justices kick off the 2026 term at 10 a.m. ET with Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, the climate case against Exxon Mobil and Suncor. Alito sits this one out.
Why You Should Care: Billions in potential payouts hinge on whether cities can sue oil companies for climate damage. Guess who'd pay for that at the pump.

Event: Fed Meeting Minutes
Date: Wednesday, October 7
Info: The Federal Reserve releases notes from its September meeting at 2 p.m. ET.
Why You Should Care: It's the closest look at what the Fed is really thinking on rates, and your mortgage is listening.

Event: Columbus Day Weekend Begins
Date: Saturday, October 10 – Sunday, October 11
Info: The long weekend kicks off ahead of Columbus Day on Monday, October 12. Banks and federal offices close Monday.
Why You Should Care: Plan your banking around it, and expect busy roads and record gas bills if you're traveling.

Think back to high school. Remember the quadratic formula? Of course you don't. When's the last time you used it? Exactly. Never.

Now think about the stuff nobody taught you. How a credit card can bury you. How a 30-year mortgage works. Why your car loan costs way more than the sticker price. What a 401(k) is. How the stock market actually makes people rich.

Twelve years of school. Thousands of hours in a classroom. And most of us walked out able to identify a mitochondria, but not a predatory loan.

Here's what should have been on the schedule:

None of this is rocket science. It's just life. And it should be one of the biggest parts of growing up in America.

Instead, kids learn about money the hard way. A credit card offer at 18. A student loan they don't understand. A car payment they can't afford. By the time they figure out the rules, they've already lost the first round.

So is it deliberate?

Ask yourself who benefits when people don't understand money. Banks profit from people who carry balances. Lenders profit from people who don't read the terms. And a government that grows by making people depend on it doesn't exactly need a nation of financially independent citizens.

Maybe it's a plan. Maybe it's just a bloated system that hasn't changed its curriculum since the typewriter. Either way, the result is the same: generations of Americans who work hard, earn money, and still have no idea how to keep it or grow it.

That's not an accident you can keep ignoring.

Our Final Conclusion

The education system doesn't need a few tweaks. It needs to be torn up and rebuilt from scratch.

Start with what kids will actually use. Money first. Then technology, because the world they're walking into runs on it. Build everything else backward from there. If algebra earns its place, great. But it should have to earn it.

Teach a kid how money works and you don't just change their bank account. You change their freedom.

Where do you stand? Should personal finance be required in every school? Hit reply and tell us.