The country’s six largest banks—JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs—all reported their earnings for the summer quarter this week. As Larry David would say, the results were prettay, prettay good.

Just three quarters through 2021, Goldman Sachs has already notched its best year ever in terms of revenue. The hero last quarter was its investment banking unit, which rode a dealmaking spree to an 88% sales bump.

What else did we learn from banks?

Covid didn’t wreck the economy as feared. In those unprecedented days last spring, banks stashed away money in a rainy day fund to prepare for a wave of loan defaults—but those never came. JPMorgan said this week it was releasing $2.1 billion from the cash pile under its mattress.

Spending is up. Wells Fargo said that debit card spending was higher every single week last quarter when compared to 2019. And at Citi, credit card spending is “well above 2019 levels.”

The trading boom is mostly going strong. Concerts and socializing are back, but many people are still trading stocks as if we were in lockdown: Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman all reported higher sales from trading last quarter. In all, five US banks made an additional $51 billion in trading revenue over the last seven quarters compared to the same period pre-Covid.

CEOs see inflation sticking around: Most bank executives agreed that inflation wasn’t as transitory as once predicted, and Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman went so far as to urge the Fed to hike rates by Q1 of next year, months before the Fed has planned on it. “You’ve got to prick this bubble a little bit,” Gorman said.

But the best times could be ahead

As the Fed prepares to wind down the stimulus measures that supported markets, investors will need to reshuffle their portfolios to adapt—potentially leading to even more $$$ for banks. And their skyrocketing share prices reflect that optimism: The KBW Bank index has doubled the S&P 500 this year, and Goldman is the Dow’s top stock, up 51% since Jan. 1.—NF

Starting Nov. 8, vaccinated international travelers will be allowed to enter the US by air—meaning families can reunite for the holidays and ask you in-person why you don’t have kids yet. Nonessential land border travel from Mexico and Canada will also reopen next month.

Together the twin announcements, both issued by the White House this week, reverse historic restrictions that barred most foreigners, including those from the EU, the UK, and China, from entering the US for the last 21 months—if time still means anything to you.

• Everyone, US citizens and noncitizens alike, will still have to present a negative Covid-19 test taken within three days of arrival.

Following the news yesterday afternoon, hotel and airline stocks ticked up.

Zoom out: The travel industry really needs this tourism boost. The US Transportation Department released new stats Friday revealing that international air traffic was down 43% in August and 21% overall compared to before the pandemic.—JW

It’s going mainstream. The world’s largest cryptocurrency topped $60,000 yesterday in anticipation of the SEC’s reported decision to approve the first bitcoin futures ETFs next week.

ETF? An exchange-traded fund is a security that tracks anything from a collection of stocks to a group of commodities—a securities soup, if you will. You can buy an ETF as you would a regular stock.

Crypto traders have been bugging the SEC to approve a bitcoin-based ETF since 2013, but regulators have pushed back, citing the coin’s volatility and the crypto industry’s lack of transparency. So getting these ETFs approved—there are four that could begin trading this month—would be a win for those trying to put crypto in front of institutional investors.

Important note: These ETFs aren’t bitcoin ETFs—they’re bitcoin futures ETFs. That means investors in these ETFs won’t actually own any bitcoin, and instead will be buying futures contracts that allow them to bet on the direction of bitcoin’s price.

Zoom out: Bitcoin has gained almost 90% in the past three months and is close enough to taste its all-time high of $64,869.—MM

Stat: With a net worth of $230 billion, Elon Musk is now about as wealthy as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Quote: “Hey Ted Sarandos! Just a quick note to let you know that I would prefer if you didn’t drag my name into your mess.”

Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby ripped into Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos in an Instagram post for including her name in his defense of airing Dave Chappelle’s standup special, The Closer, which has been criticized for Chappelle’s anti-trans comments. And the controversy keeps boiling: Netflix fired the organizer of an upcoming Oct. 20 walkout for allegedly leaking internal metrics to the press.

Read: Small business owners have mixed emotions about Biden’s vaccine mandate. (Morning Brew)

Investing in crypto is a lot like ordering from a menu at a New Jersey diner—where to even start? And should you even be there in the first place?

To help, we’ve launched a Crash Course on Crypto to give you the context, tools, and resources to help you figure out where crypto fits in your investment portfolio.

Because it’s a lot more complicated than scraping Elon’s tweets for mentions of his dog. Give it a read here.

Great news: Experts explain why you don’t need to rake your leaves this fall. We expect that dads are still gonna dad.

Weekend conversation starters:

• Coolest local newscaster ever?
• Best place to belt the new Adele song?
• Can playing Tetris reduce trauma?
• Should we (as a newsletter) get bangs?