NFL In 2020, eleven of the top 15 U.S. TV broadcasts were NFL games. (Source: Axios) POPULATION Last year, California’s population contracted by 69,532, shrinking for the first time as far back as records go. (Source: The Wall Street Journal) OUR PART OF THE WORLD The US stock market had a total capitalization of $41 trillion as of 12/31/20. 39% of the world’s $104 trillion stock market capitalization. (Source: S&P) DEBT The USA increased its national debt by $7.77 trillion in … [Read more...]

JOBLESS The lowest (3.5%) and the highest (14.7%) unemployment rates in the United States in the last 50 years (since 1970) both occurred in 2020, and they took place just 2 months apart. (Source: Department of Labor) TEN-YEAR TREASURY NOTE The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ended 2020 at 0.91%, its lowest calendar year close ever and down 1 percentage point from its 12/31/19 close of 1.91%. The 10-year Treasury note yield was 0.50% on Monday 03/09/2020, its lowest closing yield ever. … [Read more...]

RAINING NOW All 50 US states maintain a “rainy day” fund that may be accessed as a result of an economic emergency. As of 7/01/19, California had $19.2 billion set aside, Texas had $7.8 billion, New York had $2.5 billion while Illinois had just $4 million. (Source: National Association of State Budget Officers) JUST HERE FOR THE DAY 48% of hospital revenue in 2018 came from outpatient procedures. (Source: Deloitte Center for Health Solutions) BIRTHS It is estimated that there will be … [Read more...]

ALTERNATIVE POWER SOURCE Wind, solar, and hydro accounted for nearly 90% of new electricity infrastructure installed in 2020. The average cost of onshore wind is about $26 a megawatt-hour and solar is $29. That means that building new wind and solar power generation is now cheaper than keeping many of the world’s existing gas plants running. (Source: Lazard) ALL THE OTHER STUFF Administrative costs make up 34% of total US health care expenditures (i.e., expenses not related to direct … [Read more...]

IT HAS BEEN AWHILE Congress has passed 4 separate bills providing $2.8 trillion of pandemic relief, but the last of the 4 bills (HR 6312) was signed into law on 4/24/20 or nearly 8 months ago. (Source: Congress) SUGAR Between 1970 and 2000, the amount of added sugar in the American food supply rose by 25%, or about 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day. (Source: CNBC) LUMBER Lumber is the most reported material shortage among commercial contractors and the problem is getting worse. The … [Read more...]

In observance of the holidays, please note our holiday office hours: Thursday, December 24th: OFFICE CLOSED Friday, December 25th: OFFICE  CLOSED Monday, December 28th: Office open from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Tuesday, December 29th: Office open from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Wednesday, December 30th: Office open from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Thursday, December 31st: OFFICE CLOSED Friday, January 1st: OFFICE CLOSED  We will resume normal business hours, Monday, January 4th. … [Read more...]

LESS TAXES $250,000 of taxable income on a joint return in 2020 creates $48,159 of federal income tax, $250,000 of taxable income on a joint return in 2010 created $60,281 of federal income tax. (Source: IRS) HONEST? The government projects that an average US taxpayer pays 84% of his/her total federal income tax bill (mostly driven by unreported income), creating an estimated $441 billion annual “tax gap,” i.e., the difference between what all taxpayers should have paid compared to what … [Read more...]

JUST ONE MONTH The budget deficit for the US government for the first month of fiscal year 2021, i.e., October 2020, was $284 billion. As recently as fiscal year 2007, the budget deficit for the entire fiscal year was $161 billion or a smaller deficit than October’s deficit. (Source: Treasury Department) AMAZON Amazon added 427,300 employees between January and October, pushing its workforce to more than 1.2 million people globally. The number of workers at Amazon is now approaching the … [Read more...]

HISTORICALLY LOW The yield on the 10-year Treasury note closed Friday 11/20/20 at 0.83%, its 170th consecutive trading day of closing below 1%, i.e., occurring every trading day since 3/19/20. The yield on the 10-year note dropped below 1% for the first time ever on 3/03/20. 10-year notes have been traded in the USA since 1790, i.e., 230 year of trading. (Source: Treasury Department) USE TIME TO YOUR ADVANTAGE $522 invested at the beginning of every month for 40 years earning 6% per year … [Read more...]

THEY ARE NOT CAPITALISTS The Chinese government has owned between 25% to 28% of the entire Chinese economy over each of the last 20 years. (Source: Gavekal Research) MEMORY DISORDERS An estimated 5.8 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other memory disorders. The estimated lifetime cost of dementia care can exceed $750,000 in direct and indirect expenses. (Source: Barron’s) HEALTH SYSTEMS America has about 800,000 practicing physicians but needs twice … [Read more...]

THE ONLY GAME THEY PLAY The breakeven price of oil for Saudi Arabia in 2020 is $78 a barrel. 80% of the total government revenues in Saudi Arabia come from the sale of oil. The price of oil closed at $35.79 a barrel. (Source: Statista) COMMUTING From March to September of this year, Americans spent 60 million fewer hours commuting to work than before. As estimated 35.3% of the time previously used to commute went to working more on their primary job, something like 22 million hours. … [Read more...]

WAS IT WORTH IT? 56% of the $1.54 trillion of student loan debt in the United States is held by individuals with graduate degrees, i.e., beyond a bachelor’s degree (source: Federal Reserve, 2019 data). BREWERY Over the past 15 years, craft brewing rising popularity means that 85% of American snow live within ten miles of a brewery. Although craft brewers only make up 14% of beer, they use 32% of the American hop crop. (Source: Outside) BAD, BUT NOT THAT BAD The 3/27/20 CARES Act … [Read more...]

WAY UP During fiscal year 2019, US government outlays for “Income Security,” a category that includes federal unemployment benefits and the nation’s “food stamps” program, were equal to 49% of the outlays made for Social Security benefits. During fiscal year 2020, US government outlays for “Income Security” were equal to 115% of the outlays made for Social Security benefits. (Source: Treasury Department) JUST FIVE SURPLUS YEARS The budget deficit for the United States in fiscal year 2020 … [Read more...]

FUTURE TAXPAYERS The nation’s “general fertility rate,” defined as the number of births per 1,000 women between ages 15-44, was just 58.3 births in 2019, a record low rate for birth data that has been tracked nationally since 1909 or for the last 111 years. (Source: National Center for Health Statistics) HALF-AND-HALF The United States government has maintained financial records since 1789, i.e., for the last 231 years. As of 9/30/10, the US had reached a national debt of $13.56 trillion. … [Read more...]

FAMILY MONEY Jeff Bezos is ranked #1 as the richest person in the world (worth $188 billion as of 10/08/20), but the 7 living heirs of Sam Walton (he died in 1992) are worth $239 billion. (Source: Forbes) TOP FIVE In August, the value of the top five companies in the S&P 500- Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet- was 9% greater than the total market cap of the bottom 300 companies in the index. (Source: Axios) LIVE-STREAMED Audiences watched 7.46 billion hours of … [Read more...]

AS LONG AS RATES STAY LOW The average interest rate that the US government pays on its interest-bearing debt as of 8/31/2020 was 1.795%, down from 2.331% as of 12/31/15. That means our government can borrow 29.9% more money today than it borrowed 5 years ago and still have the same out-of-pocket interest expense cost. (Source: Treasury Department) SOCIAL SECURITY Age 62 is the most popular age to claim Social Security, with nearly 40% of men and nearly 35% of women claiming benefits as soon … [Read more...]