Business · Economics · Weekly
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the money
One business, industry or financial structure per week — followed to the end, until it is clear who profits, who loses and who is really in control.
- 16
- Breakdowns
- 78
- Deals tracked
- $750.4B
- Disclosed value
Latest breakdown
15:05Messaging apps · Nov 7, 2026
How Does WhatsApp Make Money If Almost Nobody Pays to Use It?
WhatsApp is free for 3B+ users. Meta earns from per-message business fees, click-to-message ads and, since 2025, Status ads. Here is who really pays.
Read the breakdown→Everything else
- 15
Why Are Realtor Commissions So High After the $1 Billion NAR Settlement?
A 5–6% commission on a $417,500 home costs $21,000–$25,000. Why buyer agent fees bounced back to 2.42% after the NAR settlement, and who really pays.
Real estate brokerageNov 4, 2026 - 14
How Does Visa Make Money, and Who Really Pays the Hidden Card Fee?
Visa keeps a small network fee on almost every card payment. See how a $100 purchase is split, who pays the $198B in U.S. card fees, and how rules differ abroad.
Card paymentsOct 31, 2026 - 13
Why Is My Electric Bill So High When I'm Not Using More Electricity?
U.S. home electricity rose from 13.15¢ per kWh in 2020 to 17.30¢ in 2025 while usage stayed roughly flat. Who sets the price, and why utilities profit by building.
Electric utilitiesOct 28, 2026 - 12
How Does Starbucks Make Money, and Where Does Each Dollar Go?
How Starbucks makes money: of every $1 in fiscal 2025, about 46¢ ran the stores, 31¢ bought coffee, milk, food and cups, and about 8¢ was operating profit.
Coffee chainOct 24, 2026 - 11
How does Google make money from free search, and who really pays for it?
Google Search & other earned $224.5B in 2025, about $615M a day. How the ad auction, the $20B Apple default deal and AI Overviews shape free search.
Search advertisingOct 21, 2026 - 10
How Does Costco Make Money if Its Grocery Margins Are So Thin?
Costco's $5.9B in FY2026 membership fees were about 2% of revenue but equal to about half of operating income. Here is how the warehouse club model works.
Warehouse clubOct 17, 2026 - 09
How Do Gas Stations Make Money If They Keep Only About 40 Cents a Gallon?
Gas stations keep about 40 cents a gallon before costs. In 2025 fuel was 65% of sales but only 39% of gross profit. The real money is inside the store.
Fuel retailOct 14, 2026 - 08
Why Are Vet Bills So Expensive, and Who Really Owns Your Vet Clinic?
U.S. vet prices rose about 62% from 2014 to 2024. How Mars, JAB and private equity bought vet clinics, and what Britain's regulator found when it checked.
Veterinary careOct 10, 2026 - 07
Why Are Funerals So Expensive, and Who Owns Your Funeral Home?
One Houston company runs 1,485 funeral homes under old family names, holds $17.0B in prepaid contracts, and charged up to 72% more in a 2017 price survey.
Funeral servicesOct 7, 2026 - 06
Why Did Blockbuster Really Fail If It Turned Down Netflix for $50M?
Blockbuster said no to Netflix for $50 million in 2000 — but the decision that killed it came in 2007, while Total Access was winning. Follow the money.
Video rentalOct 3, 2026 - 05
Who Is Actually Getting Rich From the $725 Billion AI Boom in 2026?
Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta will spend about $725 billion on AI in 2026. Here is who collects that money — and who quietly gets handed the bill.
AI data centersSep 27, 2026 - 04
What Actually Caused the 1929 Stock Market Crash, and Who Profited?
The 1929 crash was three days, not one. How 10% margin buying turned a correction into a −48% collapse, who lost everything, and who walked away rich.
Financial historySep 26, 2026 - 03
Why Did WeWork Collapse From a $47 Billion Valuation to Bankruptcy?
WeWork was valued at $47 billion in January 2019 and filed for Chapter 11 in 2023 owing $18.6 billion. Here is the lease mismatch that actually broke it.
Coworking real estateSep 19, 2026 - 02
Who Owns America's Car Wash Chains and Why Is Private Equity Buying?
Build costs, membership revenue and the real deal figures behind the car wash roll-up — including Mister Car Wash's $3.1 billion take-private and the ZIPS bankruptcy.
Car washSep 19, 2026 - 01
Who Owns Subway, Dunkin' and Arby's? Inside Roark Capital's Roll-Up
Roark Capital quietly owns at least 19 restaurant brands, from Subway to Dunkin' to Arby's. How the franchise royalty roll-up works — and where it has failed.
Restaurant franchisingSep 5, 2026
How this is done
Every figure is sourced
Build costs, margins, deal values, dates. Each one carries the reporting it came from, so you can check it rather than take it on trust.
The failure case is included
The bankruptcy, the divestiture at a disappointing price, the brand that shrank. A playbook that only ever works is a sales pitch, not an explanation.
It adds up to a dataset
Every deal covered goes into the tracker. Over time that becomes the thing you can cite — not a pile of episode recaps.
The dataset
The Roll-Up Tracker
Every deal covered on this channel, in one table: target, sponsor, date, disclosed value, status and source. It grows with each episode — and it is the part of this site you can actually cite.
Largest disclosed deals
- OpenAI · —$300B
- OpenAI Ohio campus · —$105B
- OpenAI data-center buildout · —$100B
- Seven & i Holdings (7-Eleven parent) · 2025-07-16$47B
- Visa–Mastercard merchant swipe-fee litigation (settlement) · 2026-06$38B