THE FIRST ONE The CDC has changed the date of the first US death from COVID-19 from 2/6/20 to as early as 1/11/20. The CDC now believes 6 COVID-related deaths occurred before 2/6/20. (Source: CDC) LONG-TERM ISSUE The estimated Social Security shortfall today (i.e., a present value number) between the future taxes anticipated being collected and the future benefits expected to be paid out over the next 75 years is $19.8 trillion. The entire $19.8 trillion deficit could be eliminated by an … [Read more...]

BOOM TOWN Phoenix was the 99th largest US city in 1950 (106,818 people). Phoenix is the 5th largest US city today (1.61 million people), per the US census. (Source: Census Bureau) RED TAPE Congress approved $46.55 billion in rental aid via 2 bills in 12/2020 and 3/2021. As of 8/25/21, just $5.1 billion has been disbursed to renter or 11% of the total. (Source: Emergency Rental Assistance Program) DON’T EXPECT ME TO PAY Just 3% of all hospital costs in America in 2019 were paid … [Read more...]

WORKERS One of our every 350 Americans – or one out of 153 workers in the U.S. – is now employed by Amazon. The company’s total of 950,000 U.S. employees exceeds the 873,000 workers of the entire residential construction industry. (Source: BusinessInsider) STOCK MARKET The combined stock market values of Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, and Facebook have increased by about 70% since the start of the pandemic, to more than $10 trillion. That is roughly the size of the entire U.S. … [Read more...]

NEED HELP 43% of American under age 35 receive financial help from their parents or other family members when they purchase a home, e.g., money used for a down payment. (Source: Legal & General) UNDER THE PILLOW From 1/01/20 (before pandemic) to 5/27/20, the size of the money market fund industry in the USA both taxable and tax-free) had grown from $3.6 trillion to $4.8 trillion. From 5/27/20 to 8/11/21, the size of the money market fund industry had declined $278 billion from $4.8 … [Read more...]

ALL ARE IN THE SOUTH The top 3 US cities for adding residents between 7/1/19 and 6/30/20 were Phoenix (+25,194 residents), San Antonio (+19,682) and Fort Worth (+19,229). The totals represent net additions, i.e., new residents less those people who have moved away. (Source: Census Bureau) A NATIONAL CRISIS 29% of the homeless people in the United States, i.e., 161,000 out of 560,000, are in California. (Source: Housing and Urban Development) BEING CAUTIOUS The personal savings rate in … [Read more...]

LOTS OF PEOPLE NEED HELP Medicare covers 61.2 million American, while Medicaid covers 73.8 million low-income Americans. (Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) APPLE Apple’s profits from the past three months ($21.7 billion) was nearly double the combined annual profits of the five largest U.S. airlines in pre-pandemic 2019. (Source: New York Times) IN JUST 10 YEARS Our national debt has doubled in the last decade, going from $14.34 trillion on 7/29/11 to $28.46 trillion … [Read more...]

THEY HAD TO BE SURE The government announced on 7/19/21 that the recession the United States entered into at the end of February 2020 lasted just 2 months, ending on 4/30/20. The recession, the 18th in the country in the last 100 years, was the shortest recession in the last century. The other 17 recessions in the last 100 years lasted on average 13.6 months. (Source: Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. JUST TAKE UBER The price of used cars and … [Read more...]

NOT JUST KIDS 19% of American that have outstanding student loan debt from college are over age 50, i.e., 8.7 million borrowers out of 44.7 million total borrowers. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York) AN AGING GROUP 2 out of every 5 physicians (40%) in the United States today will be at least age 65 within the next 10 years. (Source: The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections from 2019-2034) THAT WOULD BE NICE Social Security retirement benefits are projected to … [Read more...]

COSTCO The number of Costco memberships reached 105.5 million in 2020, exceeding the number of U.S. households that pay for cable TV. (Source: Bloomberg) SHIPPING More than 400 ships traveling between Asia and the West Coast were late by more than two weeks during the first five months of this year. Compare that to 388 vessels in total that were late between 2012 and 2020. (Source: Yahoo!News) TAXING AND SPENDING The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasted on 7/1/2021 that during … [Read more...]

CANCER The diagnoses of some forms of cancer fell by more than 50% in 2020 when compared to 2019, not because cancer is on the decline but because 94% of Americans postponed their annual screenings and many cancer clinics suspended the collection of biopsies. (Source: Propublica) HOSPITALS Between 3/1/0 and 6/30/20, American hospitals lost $51 billion per month of revenue due to cancelled and foregone medical services. The Mayo Clinic furloughed or cut the hours of 29,500 of its 70,000 … [Read more...]