Book Bits: 19 September 2026

● The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick
Review via Planet Money
Who is rich in America, and how did they get there?
That’s the central question of an eye-opening new book, The Everywhere Millionaire, by two economists who have spent more than a decade researching the wealthiest Americans. Their answer challenges the popular narrative that America is in a new Gilded Age dominated by a small number of spectacularly rich billionaires.
Look beyond Silicon Valley. Look beyond Wall Street. There’s a much larger class of wealthy Americans hiding in plain sight. They’re all around the country. And, often, they got rich in mundane ways. They own car dealerships. They sell hot dogs and frozen mini-quiches. They run waxing salons. They supply fabricated metal and urinal cakes. They are dentists.

● Profit from the Profit: The Past, Present & Future of Dividend Growth Investing
David L. Bahnsen
Summary via publisher (Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster)
Dividend growth investing is not merely a strategy for equity investors—it is a philosophy of ownership and a mentality. At its core, it brings to minority ownership of public equities the same business attitude that majority ownership of a private business involves: Profit is paramount, and those profits belong to the risk-takers who own the business. David Bahnsen makes the case for dividend growth investing not merely as a superior method for generating income, growth, and growth of income, but as a superior philosophy of investing. He argues that many alternative forms of equity investing are better understood as speculation. He defends the past, present, and future of dividend growth investing as the best system he has encountered for accumulating capital, generating current income, preparing for future income, and seeing income grow regardless of underlying price volatility.

● Simplify: Do 50 Percent More with 50 Percent Less
Jim VandeHei, et al.
Review via Publishers Weekly
Axios cofounders VandeHei, Allen, and Schwartz (Smart Brevity) deliver a forgettable guide to paring down work and life obligations to focus on what really matters. As AI mass-produces more content and distractions, the authors argue, the people who will thrive will be those who know “what to ignore, what to delete, what to say no to, and what to build their days around.” The authors present a three-part formula for separating the wheat from the chaff: confront (reflect on the task, asking “Why am I doing this? Will it matter even if I do it well?”), delete (ruthlessly erase what doesn’t matter), and amplify (spend the newfound time on meaningful activities).

Please note that the links to books above are affiliate links with Amazon.com and James Picerno (a.k.a. The Capital Spectator) earns money if you buy one of the titles listed. Also note that you will not pay extra for a book even though it generates revenue for The Capital Spectator. Thank you!