In today’s newsletter I discuss the pros, and lots of cons, of Flock cameras, U.S. Treasury’s 10-year notes just rose above 4.81% and that’s not good for the economy, the movie 'Artificial' about OpenAI staring Andrew Garfield as OpenAI's CEO and co-founder Sam Altman is debuting at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 5, MapQuest is #1 on Apple’s app store (as it should be), Anne Hathaway or Tom Cruise are teaming up for ‘Days of Thunder 2’, SpaceX is going to make their own turbine blades to power their AI data centers and Raptor engines, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just got a new dog, other counties are beginning to pull their gold out of the U.S. because they (rightfully) just don’t trust us anymore, Lionel Messi is retiring from Argentina’s national soccer team

Let’s get into it!

Towns and cities across the United States are starting to see small, black, solar powered cameras pop up in seemingly random locations along roadways, bridges, and intersections. They’re called Flock cameras, and citizens are pushing back with brazen acts of vigilantism that sometimes border on vandalism-depending on who you ask. It seems Flock cameras have hit a nerve with privacy-conscious Americans. It’s almost as if no one gives a Flock about your privacy anymore.

Let’s get into it.

To understand why people have such strong feelings about Flock cameras, it's important to understand what they are, what they're supposed to do, why some communities actually want them, and why there's a growing group of vocal opponents to Flock cameras. The company that would become officially known as Flock Group Inc. had a pretty humble origin story, starting out as a neighborhood watch tool designed to catch common thieves. Today Flock has grown into a massive surveillance company that is used by over 7,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, and was recently valued at around $8.3 billion dollars. Their secret sauce is their Automated License Plate Reader, known internally by the lovingly referred to abbreviation ALPR. By some estimates, there are as many as 120,000 active cameras across 49 states, with Alaska being the only state in the U.S. that doesn’t have any Flock cameras...yet. This makes Flock the largest automated license plate reader network in the country, and possibly the world.

Flock Group Inc. was founded by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd after Garrett Langley’s neighborhood experienced a rash of burglaries. He felt powerless, and the police were of little assistance, so he set out to do something about that. They build the company’s business model based on a subscription model, charging between $2,400-$3,000 dollars per camera per year, in addition to their standard $350 dollar installation fee. Today Flock brings in over $500 million dollars in annual revenue, which has helped it raise around $1.2 billion dollars, leading to their $8.3 billion dollar valuation.

But Flock cameras do a lot more than just read license plates. The cameras capture a vehicle’s make, model, color, and any distinguishing traits like roof racks, custom bumper stickers, or decals, and they do that while vehicles are driving up to 100 miles per hour from as far away as 75 feet. If you’re starting to get Big Brother vibes, then you’re not alone. And because this is 2026, Flock utilizes AI to allow their users, who are mostly law enforcement customers, to type in the description of a vehicle they’re looking for, say a black Nissan Armada with blacked out windows and 22” black rims...you know...just for an example. The Flock system can return a list of vehicles fitting that description from across the entire Flock network, not just locally. The cameras also sport microphones, and can detect gunshots or people shouting for help.

Supporters of Flock cameras, predominantly law enforcement across the country, point to how the system allows their understaffed police departments to find stolen cars, track down people with outstanding warrants, and deter crime. Opponents, like civically minded and privacy-conscious citizens, see Flock cameras as one step closer to Big Brother infringing on their privacy. Which group is right? You probably know what I’m about to say. The answer is complicated.

On the one hand, I can see the benefits to society if Flock cameras are used to track down and catch a child abuser. If you abuse children, your rights are forfeit. End of story. Unfortunately, that’s not all Flock cameras are being used to monitor, as there have been cases where the system has been used and abused to track ex-girlfriends and other people who aren’t doing anything other than living their lives legally and without suspicion of any wrongdoing.

It’s not hard to imagine Flock cameras being used to spy on a peaceful protest, where people are exercising their constitutional right to free speech...you know...like it says in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that Congress shall make no law abridging "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". I would argue we’re less than one step away from exactly the kind of society that George Orwell warned us about in his book 1984.

It was our country’s Founding Father Thomas Jefferson who, in 1776, wrote in the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he probably would have included privacy in his famous quote, and there’s no way he’d standby and let Flock cameras infringe on Americans’ rights.

The seemingly never ending War in Iran, which was supposed to be over in 4-5 weeks, is wreaking havoc on the bond market, with the rate on the U.S. Treasury’s 10-year notes rising above 4.81%, driving borrowing costs for American citizens and businesses sharply higher. Bond investors are getting more nervous by the day with oil prices above $90 dollars per barrel again, and the U.S. national debt exceeding $40 trillion dollars. Rising interest rates and higher oil prices are really starting to sock it to American consumers at the pump, at the grocery store, and now when they go to buy a new home.

When will it all end? Well, there is an election on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and elections have consequences as we’re all witnessing.

The movie that OpenAI has been trying to stop from premiering is going to actually premier at the New York Film Festival on Oct. 5.

Originally Amazon MGM was going to release the film, but after Amazon invested in OpenAI all of a sudden Amazon was no longer interested in releasing 'Artificial'.

Funny how conflicts of interest work out.

All I know is I can't wait to see Andrew Garfield play OpenAI's CEO and co-founder Sam Altman when the movie comes out.

Only in 2026 could maps become political, but here we are with MapQuest refusing to rename Lake Ontario after President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding the lake be renamed as Lake America.

I did not have on my 2026 bingo card renaming a lake after America, but ok then.

MapQuest just surged to the #1 spot on Apple’s app store after they publicly refused to take seriously President Donald Trump’s executive order demanding it be renamed "Lake America." Other map companies including Google and Apple both quickly complied and renamed the lake, with users giving both Google Maps and Apple Maps bad reviews on their respective app stores.

It’s true I’ll watch pretty much any Anne Hathaway or Tom Cruise movie, as long as it’s not scary, or scary bad, so it goes without saying I’m so excited to watch them in the new 'Days of Thunder 2' movie they just announced.

In an effort to scale their AI data centers, SpaceX is taking things into their own hands and working to alleviate one of the biggest bottlenecks in their supply chain: turbine blades.

Never one to shy away from tough problems, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX would be building a new factory in Bastrop, Texas as a foundry for casting the new single-crystal nickel superalloy turbine blades that go into both SpaceX's Raptor engines and the natural gas power turbines that will in the future power SpaceXAI’s data centers.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce just got a new dog. That’s all. I just thought ya’ll could use a break from the news to smile at a fluffy dog.

As if the U.S.’s standing in the world couldn’t get any shakier, now countries view the country as such a risk that they are moving their Gold out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to closer to home with the Bank of England due to what the Dutch referred to as “increasing geopolitical unrest.”

Once the rest of the world begins viewing the United States as no longer being a country where their money is safe then we’ll begin to see capital moving to where it is safer, which will lead to increasing interest rates here in the U.S. as the government tries to reassure a weary world that we can still be trusted. But can we? It’s an honest question to ask in light of the policies coming out of Washington that are affecting businesses today.

It’s official. Lionel Messi is retiring from Argentina’s national soccer team, but he’s not leaving the world of soccer completely. He’ll continue to play for the MLS’s Inter Miami FC through the end of the 2028 season.

Lionel Messi’s contract pays him a guaranteed $28,333,333 million dollars per year, and on top of that he brings in another $51,666,667 million dollars from his Messi receives a direct cut of Apple TV’s subscriptions driven by the MLS Season Pass broadcasting deal, plus he receives a percentage of Inter Miami FC’s Adidas t-shirt and merchandise sales. Lionel Messi also has a handful of personal endorsement deals with Pepsi, Gatorade, and Hard Rock, which bring in another $60 million dollars a year, bringing Lionel Messi’s total yearly haul to around $140 million dollars.

What’s not included in these figures is the value of Lionel Messi’s equity stake in the Inter Miami FC team, which is hard to peg because it’s not known what percentage he negotiated into his contract, but let’s just say it’s probably worth a lot more now that he’s playing for the team!

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The Business Behind The News is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.