This Week’s Takeaways:
- Sports betting is becoming increasingly unpopular, especially with men under 30.
- Hetty Green’s investment story is worth learning about, and some key lessons to take away are doing your own research, maintaining liquidity so you can buy when others are fearful, mixing patience with decisiveness, sticking to what you know, focusing on risk management, and watching the bottom line.
- Limiting smart phone access improves your mood and brain health. Even if you can’t fully cut it out, start your morning looking at something else and consider various products that can block distracting apps.
- Amazon Prime Day prices aren’t always lower, and in some cases they’re higher. Do your research before buying, including a tool suggested below that tracks historical pricing on Amazon.
- A month long government shutdown would be unprecedented and could shave .75% or so from economic growth for the quarter.
- It would take mortgage rates a full percentage point lower for the median-income U.S. homebuyer to afford the median-priced U.S. home
- Boston Corner summarizing the New England economy now and Things to Do This Weekend in Boston.
- Plus my latest book recommendation.
Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society and sports by Pew Research Center
There’s been about a ten percentage point upswing in the number of U.S. adults who think that legal sports betting is a bad thing for society and sports in the last three years. Nearly 47% of men under 30 say legal sports betting is bad for society.
[Outliers] Hetty Green: The Witch of Wall Street by FS
She built a fortune worth billions in today’s dollars in the late 1800’s. This article recaps her story and shares 12 key lessons learned from it, including the importance of research, maintaining liquidity to be able to act during downturns, mixing patience with decisiveness, sticking to what you know, managing risk, and watching the bottom line.
The benefits of waking up without your phone by Axios
Limiting smart phone access improves your mood and brain health. Even if you can’t fully cut it out, start your morning looking at something else and consider various products that can block distracting apps.
The Government Shutdown Drags On by Wells Fargo
Each shutdown week shaves up to .2 percentage points of quarterly economic growth that could be recoupled later this quarter or next. This shutdown could be a lengthier one, which strengthens the case for an October rate cut.
I tracked Amazon’s Prime Day prices. We’ve been played. by The Washington Post
Amazon Prime Day sales aren’t always better than normal prices, and sometimes they’re worse. You have to do your research on prices elsewhere and a website called CamelCamelCamel tracks Amazon’s historical prices for you.
Zillow says it would take an ‘unrealistic’ mortgage rate decline to restore housing affordability by ResiClub
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate would need to be 4.43% to make the median-priced U.S. home affordable for the median-income household, estimates Zillow. Even more striking, in several high-cost coastal metros, not even a 0% mortgage rate would make the median-priced local home affordable for a household earning the local median income. This includes New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose.
Book Recommendation
Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson by Mark Kriegel
This books takes readers through Tyson’s youth up until his devastating knockout of Michael Spinks when he was 21 years old.
Boston Corner
New England Economic Conditions through October 7, 2025
- Payroll employment growth in New England slowed significantly in 2025, driven by deceleration in both the education and health services sector and the government sector. The softened labor demand was reflected in reduced hiring activity, creating additional challenges for unemployed workers who faced fewer job openings and lower rates of finding employment.
- Year-over-year inflation in New England surpassed the national rate for the 16th consecutive month in August 2025. Shelter costs continued to be the primary driver of the region’s more elevated inflation.
- Due to a deteriorating outlook on future economic conditions, consumer confidence in New England declined in the first eight months of 2025 relative to the levels observed during the previous three years.
