A new Southwest credit card and a shot at a billion dollars

Happy Thursday, MarketWatchers! Just one more day of the work week. Here are your top stories in personal finance.

Personal Finance

Over 5 million renters have lost money in rental scams

Nearly half of young renters say they have encountered fraudulent listings.

Risk your life for a shot at billions? Millennials answer with gallows humor

Feelin’ lucky? A rather dark meme, which resurfaced to become a viral hit on Reddit overnight, asks if you’d risk your life to have a shot at up to $10 billion. Conclusion: Debt is a problem.

Lawsuit against Navient can proceed — why student loan borrowers should pay attention

In denying Navient’s motion to dismiss the case, a judge weighed in on a battle between student loan companies and states.

Should I sell the $15,000 silver tea set gifted to me by 80-year-old mother?

This woman wonders whether she should give her brothers a chance to own this family heirloom.

The government has no idea how many gig workers there are—why that’s a problem

It’s tough to measure something when no one can agree on what’s actually being measured.

Wealth inequality in the U.S. is almost as bad as it was right before the Great Depression

The top 1% took home 22.03% of all income in 2015.

Chase and Southwest have a new travel credit card, but is it a good deal?

The new card comes with a 65,000-point introductory bonus.

Detroit has the country’s most unequal housing market—and that could be a good thing

The Michigan city has the widest gap between its most and least expensive homes.

Elsewhere on MarketWatch

Trump Today: President steps up attacks on European Union and media, with Putin invitation to Washington in works

President Donald Trump on Thursday stepped up his attack on the European Union and the media, as he still remained on the defensive over his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

An assumed ‘Treasury put’ may have doomed Puerto Rico bond investors

Investors in the bonds of troubled Puerto Rico may have wrongly assumed that the government would always come to rescue them, and then panicked when that didn’t happen in Detroit, according to a new paper.

Trump tax cut gives U.S. workers a hard landing

American Airlines is an example of how employees must fight for raises while stock buybacks come easily.

If Russia really controlled Trump, he wouldn’t be publicly siding with Putin

Russia would never allow anyone to imagine Trump was working for them, writes George Friedman.

Emerging market bond investors keep their cool as trade-war fears rise

CreditSights says investors aren’t shunning countries based on their exposure to global trade, behavior that would usually be expected if market participants feared a trade conflict.