THE SHOW NOTES: Argentina's Rent Controls, The Censored American Self, & “Americans Misremember”

Welcome! Oakland sports reporter blasts the A’s owner live on air as the team prepares to move.

BREAKING: September consumer confidence falls the most in three years - CNBC

HEADLINE: Harris won't say if she still backs decriminalizing prostitution - Axios

MUST READ: The Social Pressure Index is a private study that reveals Americans’ true opinions about sensitive topics.

NEW: Republicans’ latest worry: Their imploding N.C. candidate could drag down Trump - SEMAFOR

DATA: Hezbollah had around 150,000 missiles and rockets before the October 7th attacks. - WSJ (paywall)

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Argentina’s Rent Controls

When Javier Milei was elected President of Argentina, one of his first orders was to scrap the country’s onerous rent controls. Here’s what happened next according to The Wall Street Journal (paywall).

The result: The Argentine capital is undergoing a rental-market boom. Landlords are rushing to put their properties back on the market, with Buenos Aires rental supplies increasing by over 170%. While rents are still up in nominal terms, many renters are getting better deals than ever, with a 40% decline in the real price of rental properties when adjusted for inflation since last October, said Federico González Rouco, an economist at Buenos Aires-based Empiria Consultores.

The Atlantic: Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake

An opinion piece at The Atlantic makes a compelling case that after legalizing sports betting for roughly six years, the data suggests that it was a huge mistake. The author cites data from three unique papers. Here are the quotes that matter:

ONE: “Northwestern University’s Scott Baker and colleagues, finds that legal sports gambling depletes households’ savings. Specifically, for every $1 spent on betting, households put $2 less into investment accounts. States see big increases in the risk of overdrafting a bank account or maxing out a credit card.”

TWO: “Looking specifically at online sports gambling, they (UCLA economists) find that legalization increases the risk that a household goes bankrupt by 25 to 30 percent, and increases debt delinquency. These problems seem to concentrate among young men living in low-income counties—further evidence that those most hurt by sports gambling are the least well-off.”

THREE: “Research found that an NFL home team’s upset loss causes a 10 percent increase in reported incidents of men being violent toward their partner. Matsuzawa and Arnesen extend this, finding that in states where sports betting is legal, the effect is even bigger. They estimate that legal sports betting leads to a roughly 9 percent increase in intimate-partner violence.”

“Americans Misremember”

Democratic Senator Chris Coons was asked by Joe Kernan on CNBC why Americans largely prefer Donald Trump over Kamala Harris when it comes to managing the economy. His answer:

“Many Americans misremember just how bad the economy was 4 years ago.”

China Unleashes Stimulus Package to Revive Economy, Markets

China’s central bank unveiled a broad package of monetary stimulus measures to revive the world’s second-largest economy, underscoring mounting alarm within Xi Jinping’s government over slowing growth and depressed investor confidence.

People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng cut a key short-term interest rate and announced plans to reduce the amount of money banks must hold in reserve to the lowest level since at least 2018, appearing at a rare briefing alongside two of the country’s other top financial regulators in Beijing. That marked the first time reductions to both measures were revealed on the same day since at least 2015.

Full story at Bloomberg (paywall).

Trending news:

• A third of former football players have degenerative brain disease. - JAMA

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• Trump seeks to derail major court filing by federal prosecutors in election interference case - NBC

• Tropical Storm Helene just formed. In just over 48 hours it could hit Florida as a major hurricane - CNN

• Severe obesity is on the rise in the US - AP

• Newly unearthed data shows closer links to Robinson and porn, dating sites - Politico

• Philadelphia riots sparked by illegal car meet-ups - The Telegraph

• Harris calls for ending filibuster for abortion rights - The Hill

• ‘One pistol clip can change the balance of power’: Congress is wholly unprepared for a mass casualty event - Politico

• In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women - NYT (paywall)

• A Looming East Coast Port Strike Could Shake the Economy - NYT (paywall)

Market snapshot: