Tuesday's Assorted Links

AMEX reward points, state growth rates, factory activity, interest rate cuts, and college investments

Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contain some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:

1. The CEO of a small guitar-pedal manufacturing business in Oklahoma paid off an unexpected $11,000 tariff bill using 1.83 million American Express reward points [Yahoo News!]

2. Which US state’s economy is growing the fastest? [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis]

3. Factory activity in the US shrank for the fourth straight month in June [The Business Times]

4. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank would have cut interest rates by now if not for President Trump’s tariff announcements [CNBC]

5. College is worth it for about 75% of the graduates [

   Finding Equilibrium: Two Economists on Higher Ed's Future
   ]

---

Americans are saving more, but whether that’s a good sign depends on why. This week’s article explores two possible explanations: a rise in financial stability and “saving culture,” or growing anxiety about tariffs, inflation, and a potential recession. I teamed up with

Hanna Horvath

to look at how personal finance habits and broader economic trends often tell different parts of the same story.

---

Are you an educator looking for ways to introduce this week’s newsletter into your classroom? Sign up for the Classroom Edition of Monday Morning Economist to get assessments and lesson plans delivered straight to your inbox every week.