The Cynic: December 4

BUSINESS
This Week’s Business News

Waymo Probed After Self-Driving Cars Blow Past School Buses

Self-driving cars are now failing the one rule every 16-year-old learns first: stop for the school bus. U.S. safety regulators are expanding their probe into Waymo after Texas officials reported 19 cases this school year where its robotaxis illegally passed stopped school buses with red lights flashing and stop arms out.

Those Texas clips are on top of an earlier bus incident in Georgia that started the investigation. In that case, a Waymo vehicle initially stopped, then drove around the bus anyway — not a great look for a system that’s supposed to be better than distracted humans. Regulators already suspected there might be more similar events hiding in the data.

Austin’s school district basically told Waymo: either prove you can behave or stay away from the kids. Officials say Waymo pushed software updates, but there were still multiple November incidents, and they’ve asked the company to pause operations near schools at pickup and drop-off until it can show it actually respects flashing red lights.

Can “Trump Accounts” Really Turbocharge Savings for Lower-Income Kids?

Washington finally found something both patriotic and complicated: giving babies brokerage accounts. Under the Trump Accounts plan, every eligible child born between 2025 and 2028 would get a $1,000 government-seeded investment account, run by a parent or guardian and invested in low-cost index funds until age 18, when it converts into a retirement-style account.

Families can keep feeding the account, and the math gets wild if they actually do it. Parents and others could contribute up to $5,000 a year (with employers capped at $2,500), and planners say that with max contributions and decent market returns, balances could climb into the high six figures by a child’s late 20s. Philanthropists Michael and Susan Dell are piling on with an extra $250 each for 25 million kids in lower-income ZIP codes — a $6.25 billion booster shot.

The big question isn’t the spreadsheet; it’s the real world. The program still needs clear rules on things like financial-aid treatment, who gets to manage the money, and how easy the government makes it to sign up — because nothing kills compounding faster than a terrible website and a 17-page IRS form. Supporters see a generational wealth jump-start; skeptics worry many families won’t have spare cash to contribute at all.

Stellantis Recalls 72,509 Ram Trucks After Dashboards Ghost the Driver

It’s hard to be a responsible driver when your dashboard pulls a disappearing act. Stellantis is recalling 72,509 Ram vehicles in the U.S. over a software glitch that can cause the instrument panel display to go completely blank while driving.

When the screen dies, so does a lot of important information. The bug can wipe out your view of speed, warning lights, and other key data, which is not ideal in a two-ton truck moving at highway pace. U.S. regulators flagged the issue after the company reported it in a filing.

The fix is a software update; the PR damage is a bit harder to patch. Owners will be notified and can get the update installed, but “our trucks are fine, the screen just sometimes vanishes” is not the tagline Ram’s marketing department was dreaming of this quarter.

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REAL ESTATE
This Week’s Real Estate News

GAO Investigates FHFA Chief Bill Pulte Over Mortgage “Hit List” Claims

When a housing regulator spends a lot of time referring political enemies for prosecution, Congress tends to notice. The Government Accountability Office has opened an investigation into whether FHFA Director Bill Pulte misused his position and agency resources when he referred several prominent Trump critics to the Justice Department for alleged mortgage fraud.

Democratic senators say this looks more like politics than prudence. Their request for the probe points to Pulte’s referrals targeting figures like New York Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Adam Schiff, and Fed Governor Lisa Cook, and to his decision to bypass the agency’s inspector general instead of using normal internal channels. GAO will now dig into whether that crossed the line from aggressive oversight into partisan misuse of power.

The White House, meanwhile, is standing firmly behind him. Officials describe Pulte as one of the president’s most loyal and effective advisors and say he’s doing “a great job” cracking down on fraud. So one side sees a watchdog cleaning house; the other sees a regulator with a badge, a spreadsheet, and a political hobby.

Big Money Discovers Toddlers: Early-Education Real Estate Becomes a Hot Asset

Wall Street has officially realized that preschool tuition never bounces. Rising demand for childcare and early education is fueling a boom in a small but fast-growing corner of commercial real estate: daycare centers and pre-K facilities, where spaces are so scarce that investors are now lining up behind them.

The fundamentals look more “infrastructure” than “optional.” The U.S. childcare market is estimated around $65 billion today and projected to top $100 billion in the next decade, while roughly half of U.S. areas are classified as “child-care deserts” with far more demand than available seats. Properties are often leased long-term on triple-net deals to big chains like KinderCare or The Learning Experience, which means steady rent checks and tenants covering taxes, insurance, and maintenance.

Developers are racing to turn this fragmented niche into an institutional asset class. Firms like Fortec are launching nine-figure funds and have already done hundreds of millions in transactions across multiple states, pitching early-education centers as bond-like income with built-in rent escalators. Translation for investors: the crayons are cheap, the leases are long, and nap time comes with pretty solid cash flow.

Mortgage Rates Finally Dip — and Homebuyers Barely Look Up

A rate drop that feels like finding three dollars in your coat pocket isn’t going to restart housing. After several weeks of increases, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate for conforming loans slipped from about 6.40% to 6.32%, with slightly lower upfront points as well.

On paper, that’s good news; in reality, demand still went in reverse. Total mortgage application volume fell about 1.4% on the week after adjusting for Thanksgiving, with refinance applications down around 4%. Purchase applications did inch up a few percent, but from such a low level that it barely registers in the bigger trend.

The real problem isn’t eight basis points; it’s affordability fatigue. Buyers are still staring at high home prices, thin inventory, and shaky economic signals, so a tiny dip in rates feels more like background noise than a green light. Until either prices or rates move down in a meaningful way, this market stays stuck in “we’ll just wait and see” mode.

FUN
Riddle Me This

A CEO, an AI model, and a middle manager walk into a budget meeting. By the end of Q4, only two of them are still on payroll, and both insist they “created most of the value.”

Who got cut?

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ADVICE
This Week’s Business Advice

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