70 Words

The Friday File: In 1966, U.S. per capita caloric sweetener consumption was 115 lbs/year, and as late as 1982 it was under 120 lbs/year. Consumption then rose quickly, peaking in 1999 at 154 lbs/year. It’s since markedly declined and has…

With race-based affirmative action now illegal, colleges who wish to maintain diversity have opportunities. They may wish to consider spending much more on outreach to underprivileged communities to boost already low application rates. They can also offer plans that give…

The Fed received a double-whammy last week. Not only was 23Q1 GDP upwardly revised from 1.3% to 2%, suggesting the economy was performing meaningfully better than believed, but inflation as measured by core-PCE rose 4.6% in May Y-o-Y, and has…

The current US flag was designed by Bob Heft of Lancaster, Ohio in 1958 in anticipation of Alaska becoming the 49th state and Hawaii following soon after. He was amazingly a high school junior, and his teacher gave him a…

The Friday File: The newspaper platform with the most digital subscribers in the world is the New York Times at 9 million. Second is the Wall Street Journal at 3.2 million, followed by the Washington Post at 2.5 million. Gannett…

During the first four weeks of 2023, first time claims for unemployment were about 45,000 below the 2018 -2022 three-year average for each of those weeks. The next four weeks, unemployment claims averaged 10,000 below the three-year average for weeks…

The price of an existing home declined 0.2% Y-o-Y in April. This was the first Y-o-Y price decline since early 2012. However, seasonally adjusted M-o-M prices rose 0.53%, and have now risen for three straight months, after falling for seven…

Compared to 2019, TSA reports airline travel is back to its 2019 level and has been so since the start of 2023. As for hotel occupancy, it’s now equal to the 2000-2022 median, but slightly below the 2018 record. Gasoline…

With 30-year mortgage rates up 1.2 percentage points Y-o-Y, it’s unsurprising that the May national median house price is down 3.1% Y-o-Y to $396,100. The drop was the largest percentage decline since 12/2011, and the fourth month in a row…

The Friday File: Tom Stuker has flown more airline miles than anyone ever, 23 million. His busiest year was 2019 when he took 373 flights that covered 1.46 million miles and averaged eight hours per day on a plane. Had…