Friday's Fast Five: Week of 9.22

Never Look Down the Road Not Taken (Of Dollars and Data): It’s easy to imagine how our financial lives would’ve turned out had we sold this or bought that. But, when you go through the motions of living it, you will see that things wouldn’t necessarily turn out as planned.

Why the UAW Strike Isn’t the Biggest Problem for Ford and GM  (Barron's): A strike is only the most immediate issue facing the two biggest U.S. auto makers. The existential threat posed by electric vehicles is the bigger problem.

The chaotic and cinematic MGM casino hack, explained (Vox): Did prominent casino chain MGM Resorts gamble with its customers’ data? That’s a question a lot of those customers are probably asking themselves after a cyberattack took down many of MGM’s systems for several days. And it may have all started with a phone call, if reports citing the hackers themselves are to be believed.

Deion Sanders Is Writing College Football’s New Playbook (Bloomberg): In his first season at the University of Colorado, “Coach Prime” has harnessed the power of social media, the NCAA transfer portal and his own celebrity to transform a perennial loser into must-see TV.

Inside a Sales Army Turning a Tax Break Into a Modern-Day Gold Rush (The Wall Street Journal): An antiaging consultant in Florida. A technician in North Carolina. A semiretired broker. They’re all part of a vast sales army aiming to profit from one of the biggest tax breaks Congress ever created for small businesses.