Hey there, hope you had a great week. In today’s newsletter, we’ll learn about:

Honestly, it’s more fun than it sounds. We’ll also end like we do every week with a song; this one is fundamental to some of the biggest hits of the past decade. Have a great weekend! — Tony Wagner, newsletter editor

Sonya Joseph grew up on a tree-lined street in Brooklyn.

“Around the block we had nice small mom and pop stores that I would frequent. I knew my neighbors and we all pretty much went to school together. So it was pretty communal,” she said.

Joseph’s parents owned their home. She figured one day she’d own a home, too.

“Being a homeowner can provide me with a sense of peace of mind and security and a sense of community that I feel like I deeply desire,” said Joseph, now a 34-year-old community organizer living in Washington, D.C. “That’s kind of the dream that was sold to us.”

Joseph was close to purchasing a home through a first-time homebuyer program. But the organization looked through her bank statements and discovered an ongoing balance of about $600, charged to buy now, pay later programs. She’s used them to buy furniture, groceries, and toiletries. And she said lately, it’s starting to feel like everything in her life is on a payment plan — like her phone, which costs $26 a month.

“Not only I don’t fully own the phone, but by the time I do own the phone I probably need to get a new phone,” she said. “I’m in a lifetime subscription for the phone ownership if that makes sense.”

A lifetime subscription for ownership is becoming a hallmark of middle class life. You go into debt to buy a $60,000 car only to learn you have to pay to use its remote start feature. You turn on your PlayStation to play a game you don’t own, just purchased a license to access. And that’s showing up in the numbers. Household debt is historically high for everything from credit card balances to auto loans. Combine that with the subscription economy and it seems like people don’t outright own much anymore.

The idea of financing life this way seems like a 21st century problem, but it goes way back.

President Donald Trump has proposed yet another plan to pay Americans.

His latest pitch: $5,000 checks to every American adult if the Republican party remains in control of the House and the Senate in the midterm elections. Since there are about 245 million adult citizens in the U.S, the proposal could cost $1.2 trillion.

Last year, Trump and his efficiency czar, billionaire Elon Musk, proposed passing “government efficiency” savings onto Americans. Later in 2025, Trump floated paying a $2,000 tariff dividend to every American.

Neither have come to fruition, and this latest proposal is likely to have a similar fate.

The plan is seeing resistance from Congressional Republicans, and experts say it could boost inflation and add to the deficit, which is already high. 

"[Trump] has said that he'll write a $5,000 check to everybody. Well, do you think Warren Buffett, do you think Jeff Bezos, do you think Elon Musk needs a $5,000 check from the U.S. government? No, of course not. And so you just question what's the purpose of that," said Maclyn Clouse, a finance professor at Denver University.

Victoria Beasley is setting up a makeshift commodities market.

“Everybody, grab a golden ticket,” she instructs her students. “If you are a seller, also pick up a bundle of apples. Go, go go!”

Beasley, who is constantly in motion, is in her classroom at Digital Harbor High School, a public school in Baltimore, where she’s teaching AP Business with Personal Finance.

The apples are pictures printed on paper. Each student picks up a ticket that says whether they’re a buyer or seller. It also lists a price: For sellers, that’s the minimum price they can sell their apples. For buyers, it’s the max they’re willing to pay.

“Y’all have to find the person you want to make a deal with,” Beasley instructs.

One seller, Bren Carter, makes his pitch.

“For the apples I have, it’s $16. They're more flavorful, they're more juicy,” he said.

Carter, who’s wearing a shirt that says “rise and grind,” finds a buyer.

“You have me convinced, sir. I would take this deal,” said his classmate, Tristan Scott.

Like future business leaders, they shake hands. But not everyone makes a deal, which Beasley said is to be expected. She asks one student, Nasir Blanding, why he didn’t buy any apples.

“Because they were too expensive, $15 to $20,” he said.

“15 to 20 bucks for apples, and you weren't about that life,” she responds.

The goal of this activity is to introduce students to different kinds of markets. They’ll also learn about accounting, marketing, how to put together a household budget. It’s all part of a new class from the College Board, the nonprofit behind the SAT test and Advanced Placement courses.

This 1989 track is at the center of a sprawling lawsuit that asks fundamental questions about music copyright and the building blocks of genre.

At issue is the “dembow” beat, a syncopated “boom-ch-boom-chick” rhythm that forms the spine of reggaeton and many other summery hits. The producers behind “Fish Market” claim their work has been reproduced without permission in some 1,800 songs by 160 defendants, but a key claim was thrown out by a California judge this week.

 

To better understand the case and its implications for the music industry, we had on Jennifer Jenkins, a Duke law professor author of the book "Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture."