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- The Cynic: September 18
The Cynic: September 18
The Cynic
September 18, 2025
In partnership with
BUSINESS
This Week’s Business News
Cracker Barrel tried to “freshen up” the brand—and customers freshened up their exit strategy.
Business Insider | Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Shares slid after a short-lived logo change sparked a backlash that dinged traffic and forced a retreat to the classic porch-vibes look. The company also shelved its “modern” store remodels after testing just a handful.
Foot traffic went from a ~1% dip early in the month to roughly an 8% slide after the rollout, and management guided revenue below expectations while warning marketing costs will rise to patch the damage.
Lesson learned: raise prices, shrink portions—maybe. Touch the logo—absolutely not.
DeepSeek says its hit AI cost just $294,000 to train—every CFO in Silicon Valley just did the math twice.
REUTERS | Jeenah Moon
The Chinese startup disclosed in a peer-reviewed paper that its R1 reasoning model training bill was about $294K, using 512 Nvidia H800s, with supplementary notes acknowledging A100s in early development.
Whether that figure captures everything or just compute, the headline point stands: competitive models can now be built for less than a Bay Area teardown.
If your moat is “we spend billions,” your moat might actually be… a receipt.
ABC benched “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after his remarks about Charlie Kirk—late night met the off switch.
REUTERS | Hemanshi Kamani
Disney’s network pulled the show indefinitely following Kimmel’s comments, amid affiliate blowback and public pressure; one major station group paused carriage on dozens of ABC affiliates.
Regulators piled in on both sides of the speech debate, while the move drew cheers and jeers across the aisle—another reminder that 2025’s comedy comes with legal disclaimers.
For now, the show’s dark. In an era of hot mics, cooler heads are in short supply.
PARTNER
This Week’s Partner
7 Actionable Ways to Achieve a Comfortable Retirement
Your dream retirement isn’t going to fund itself—that’s what your portfolio is for.
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The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income from Fisher investments shows you ways you can position your portfolio to help you maintain or improve your lifestyle in retirement.
It also highlights common mistakes, such as tax mistakes, that can make a substantial differ-ence as you plan your well-deserved future.
REAL ESTATE
This Week’s Real Estate News
The Fed cut a quarter-point—great for borrowers, less great for your 5% savings flex.
AFP | Getty Images
The first cut of 2025 nudges borrowing costs down on credit cards, HELOCs, and auto loans; mortgage pricing often follows, but the bond market is the real boss.
Big banks trimmed prime to 7.25% right after the decision, and markets are already gaming the odds of another cut. Cue a modest sigh of relief across Main Street.
Savers, meanwhile, should expect APYs to drift lower—the “earn 5% on cash” party is stacking chairs.
Refinance demand popped nearly 60%—apparently pain relief is a compelling product.
Courtesy of Zuri Gardens
As rates slid into the high-6s/low-7s, homeowners rushed to refi, producing the biggest jump in years and flipping the app mix toward refis over purchases.
This is classic window-opening behavior: if your new rate beats your old one by ~0.5–1.0 percentage point after fees, the monthly savings can actually move the needle.
Do the breakeven math: closing costs divided by monthly savings. If payback’s under two years and you’re staying put, congrats—you just gave yourself a raise.
Mortgage rates fell to a 3-year low right before the meeting—markets love to front-run Santa.
REUTERS | Sarah Meyssonnier
Average 30-year fixed rates notched their best level since late 2022, helped by cooler inflation and cut chatter—exactly when “we’re not buying” buyers start, well, buying.
Lower rates help qualification, but price and thin inventory still gate the dream; the pre-approval letter finally clears, the budget still argues back.
Sellers may see multiple offers again—this time with contingencies, because 2021’s no-inspection cosplay is over.
“Reading The Cynic is like being handed a lit firework—painful, reckless… yet impossible to ignore.”
FUN
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I look cheaper when I rise,
I feel heavier when I fall.
I’m the reason you refinance,
And the reason you don’t call.
What am I?
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ADVICE
This Week’s Business Advice
“If your strategy depends on perfect timing, it’s not a strategy—it’s a lottery ticket.”
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