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Have you ever wondered what Warren Buffett does in his free time? Turns out he's a YouTube guy, as prone to the rabbit hole as any of us. You might expect the recently retired Berkshire Hathaway CEO to consume nerdy financial content, but no. According to The Wall Street Journal, we learned he's prone to watching Paul Anka videos, clips of Bill Murray films, and my personal favorite … O'zbekiston Got Talent, the Uzbek knock-off of America's Got Talent. But who hasn't gone through that phase?
Coming up
- European defense start-ups are raking in cash; Americans are benefiting
- These six power plants should be offline. This is what they cost tax-payers
- Why Florida college enrollment seems to be doing well
Trivia: What do most countries with a sovereign wealth fund have in common? Email your answer to indicator@npr.org
News We're Watching
Why U.S. investors are throwing money at defense start-ups - Bloomberg
What to Know: American investors are seeing an opportunity in Europe. The continent saw a 14 percent rise in military spending to $864 billion last year, due to pressure from Russia and Trump's own unhappiness with low spending from NATO allies. The hike is prompting a spate of new defense start-ups keeping up with modern warfare. They're building tech like AI-powered battlefield management, drones, and spy satellites. These start-ups are already bidding and winning contracts… so the pay-off is coming fast. In fact, these startups have raised a RECORD amount of capital this year, with help from Americans.
Why the U.S. is loving this: Just about half of the funding in Europe's defense tech industry is coming from American investors this year! What's up?
- European VC's aren't remotely measuring up: Europe does have venture capital (VC) firms. But there's about €150 billion in EU-based funds versus more than a trillion dollars in its U.S. counterparts. U.S. firms are out-investing EU ones at every funding round level, getting significantly larger at later-stage rounds when the big, risky checks are needed.
- American investors are seeing dollar signs: NATO allies have committed to investing 5% of GDP into defense. That means a lot of government contracts. Cody Huggins, a partner at Scout Ventures, a VC firm, told CNBC last year, "you're going to see high-caliber entrepreneurs that otherwise wouldn't have built in this space because they would be concerned that there weren't the contracts or the venture capital or growth equity in Europe."
- Restrictions on European investment: Some European money comes with restrictions on defense spending. For example, the European Investment Bank limits investment in weapons and ammo for ethical reasons. The German fund KfW Capital won't finance what it deems 'controversial' weapons.
These power plants should be offline. Whose paying to keep them going? - E & E News
What to Know: Five coal-fired power plants and one running on oil and gas would no longer be online if not for the Trump administration. The Department of Energy used emergency authority to keep the plants going past their scheduled retirement, something that's never been done in the history of the DOE. It was also against the wishes of some of the plants. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said it's about giving people access to more reliable power to help address periods of peak demand. What's odd: several of the plants are running at limited capacity or not at all. That said, utilities are still incurring millions of dollars just to maintain a power plant on standby. Wright told Reuters last year that he expects most of the nation's power plants to hold off on retirement in order to help power artificial intelligence aka data centers.
Why it matters: Electricity costs nationwide are already wildly high as demand increases from AI. Consumers Energy, the company that owns the Michigan J.H. Campbell coal plant, reported to the SEC that the plant has cost them $259 million to continue running since May of last year. The utility has gone to its customers to pay for $138 million of that cost. A recent court decision also found the 'emergency' order was an overstep and threatened the stability of the energy market.
Emergency orders are keeping a generating unit at a coal-fired plant in Colorado going as well. The latest happened Sept. 27. The DOE has to keep issuing them within 90 days. Keeping that plant online would cost taxpayers $80 million annually, according to its Governor. That's without it producing basically any power.
Our question on the team: What does this mean for other energy developers? Does the regulatory uncertainty affect new investment given the continued 90-day renewals?
Update: President Trump looks to lower diesel costs - NPR
Last week, we spoke in the newsletter about why diesel costs tend to be higher than regular gas. Diesel prices have hit a record high in the past month, and the Trump administration had considered an export ban to try and lower prices. Well now, the administration has made its move. No export ban! BUT… President Trump issued an executive order to defer the payment of a 24 cent excise tax on diesel for on-highway driving through the end of the year.
Today's Indicator
The awkward art of asking friends to pay you back
If you HAVEN'T listened: If you've ever used 'Venmo' as a verb, you likely know the pain of someone not paying you back. You generously offered your credit card to pay for dinner, your co-diner promised to pay you back, you send a Venmo request and *deflating balloon sound*... they don't do it. A day goes by, TWO. Venmo tells us about 40% of people take a week or MORE to settle debts with friends. Transferring money may be easy, but getting that money back? Less so.
In the full episode, we hear first-hand accounts from listeners on THEIR Venmo experiences.
If you HAVE listened: The reporter Ricky Mulvey tells us that we didn't have time to get into all the reasons why someone doesn't get paid back on Venmo. A few remaining:
- A Venmo request gets buried in a string of other notifications. The person who owes money simply forgets.
- The person who is owed money is trying to "optimize". This can happen if you are the person who wants to put your card down at a group dinner. You get the credit card points, but now you've got several people, including some folks you may not know owing you money.
- Not understanding someone else's financial situation. This comes from being the inclusive friend. You want to include everyone on a big trip, but may not fully realize the financial burden it could put on someone.
The most salient advice from the episode is that a Venmo is a personal loan. And if you give out a personal loan, the money may not come back to you.
Rest of the Week
Why Norway's sovereign wealth fund is facing its own Ed Sheeran moment
How increased ICE raids impact hospitals
Listener Mailbag
Listener Mia Calle is messaging from Port St. Lucie, Fl.
Question: My name is Mia, and I am a high school math teacher in Florida and mother of two young daughters. I keep hearing about how it is becoming increasingly difficult for students to be admitted to colleges in Florida from my colleagues.
Can you help me reconcile the decline in college enrollment nationally with the increase in competition to enroll in public universities in Florida? Is the latter because the state has the Bright Futures program which is based on merit and may encourage a wider pool of applicants compared to other states? I grew up in Michigan after the Michigan (broken) Promise Scholarship fell through. Are there other states that offer similar programs? Is this an antidote to reverse the national downward trend in college enrollment?
Answer: Just last week, we were talking on the show how college enrollment is set to decline steadily through 2041. Florida has seen college enrollment steadily rise the past three years and is set to do the same into next year. We don't know whether the trend will continue… BUT we do know the South is set to keep churning out high school graduates at a steady pace. Tennessee is set to see a 15 percent bump by 2041, South Carolina 14 percent and… Florida at a 12 percent increase!
Here are some potential contributing factors to Florida's college enrollment increasing the past few years:
- Price: Florida has the MOST affordable in-state tuition and fees, according to U.S. News & World Report. The website has also ranked Florida the NUMBER ONE state for higher education for the past 11 years.
- Demand from out-of-state students: In 2021-2022, Florida had the 11th-lowest OUT-of-state tuition. AND both the University of Florida and Florida State University are among the most affordable highly rated schools for out-of-state tuition.
- Bright Futures: This is a scholarship program to help high-achieving Florida high school grads afford school in-state. Last year, in the 2024-25 school year, 37,114 new students got disbursements to help pay for school in-state.
You said you kept hearing how Florida schools are becoming more competitive. Well, at least for the University of Florida, its acceptance rate IS certainly getting tougher. From ~33% a few years ago to 19.8% last year. It's made quite a few top college lists which helps this competitiveness too.
Thanks for your question, Mia!If you have an economics question, send us a message at indicator@npr.org.
In Our Spare Time
Co-host Adrian Ma is watching PBS Newshour
I've been watching a lot of PBS NewsHour lately, which is funny to me, because for the longest time, I wasn't a TV-news person.
I grew up in a Fox News household. Ever since it went on the air in the 90s, there was always a TV in my house turned to O'Reilly, Beck, Hannity or Ingraham. And that shaped my idea of TV news: shouty hosts, flashy sets, woosh-y graphics, and sensational headlines. It wasn't for me, but it certainly wasn't boring. TV that gets your fight-or-flight response going. Because of that, I avoided watching TV news for many years.
Then a few years ago, I started watching PBS NewsHour. At first, I thought, "This is BORING TV." But the more I watched, the more I came to see its boringness as a superpower. It delivers the news in a way that's smart, respectful, non-sensational, calm, and humane. In short, it is boring in the best way.
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