The Oracle of Omaha is concerned that America has a gambling problem.

Why it matters: Warren Buffett recently retired from Berkshire Hathaway, but when he speaks, investors still listen.

🗣️ Driving the news: Buffett articulated his concerns about America's gambling culture in an interview with CNBC, saying speculative trading is undermining long-term investing.

• "It's tough to find values when everybody is preferring gambling," he said.
• He added: "Since humans love to gamble so much, there's more money in, in actually cultivating gamblers than there are cultivating investors."

📊 The big picture: Buffett's comments come amid the rise of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, which are giving investors the ability to risk money via alternative methods.

• Kalshi recently debuted perpetual futures, or perps, allowing investors to effectively bet on whether the price of an existing asset will go up or down.
• And the prediction markets are under fire from critics who say they're facilitating gambling — particularly on sports — outside of the auspices of state gaming regulation.

What they're saying: Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said in an on-stage interview at Axios House DC yesterday that many prediction market users feel like conventional markets "are not working" for them.

• "They feel like the game is rigged against them — and they're mostly right. There's no way for them to get an edge in those markets," Mansour said.

⚠️ Friction point: The rapid expansion of sports betting has been blamed for fueling gambling addiction, particularly among younger Americans. And critics say prediction markets are doing the same.

Go deeper

SpaceX's rocket boosters routinely execute RTLS landings (Return to Launch Site), where they conduct a boostback burn, reenter the atmosphere and touch down right near their original launch site.

• The company's stock just performed an RTLS of its own, Axios' Pete Gannon writes.

Driving the news: SpaceX shares dipped to $132.15 today, falling below the $135 IPO price for the first time since its June 12 debut. They closed at $135.27.

• Today's 0.6% drop marked the fourth straight session in the red, a span in which shares have fallen nearly 10%.

The big picture: At today's close, shares of Elon Musk's space juggernaut are down 40% from their high on June 16, their second full day of trading on the Nasdaq.

🏦 Morgan Stanley kept the party going, posting record Q2 revenue and profit driven by a 69% surge in equities trading revenue and big investment banking fees from SpaceX's IPO, while pulling in a record $148 billion of net new assets in its wealth management business. (Reuters)

🏠 Mortgage rates rose last week, with the average 30-year loan hitting 6.65%, the highest level since August 2025, per the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications for new purchases fell 7% from the previous week and 2% from last year. (CNBC)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a sneak peek this morning of a proposed $1 gold-colored coin featuring President Trump to commemorate America's 250th anniversary, Axios' Herb Scribner writes.

Zoom in: Bessent shared the first-look photo of the coin featuring Trump's face as a way "to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism."

• "Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all," Bessent wrote on X.

Friction point: Federal law bars putting living presidents' faces on U.S. coins.

• Treasury argued last October, however, that the coin can be released under the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 because it allows for "designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial."

What's next: A Treasury spokesperson said the coin is already in production and would be released this fall.