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The Friday file: In 2025, the Tooth Fairy visited 83% of homes with children losing teeth, up from 78% in 2024. While busier, the Tooth Fairy was substantially stingier and left an average of just $5.01/tooth versus $5.84 in 2024…
On 11/12/25, the last US penny was minted. The Mint reported $85.3 million lost on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced at a cost of 3.69 cents each. The present value of the savings to taxpayers is $2.1 billion.…
The Friday File: I’m sure you will be thrilled to know that the number of global billionaires now totals 2,900, a rise of 287 from last year, the second biggest jump ever. Their collective wealth is now $15.8 trillion, up…
The Friday File: While Memorial Day is now about cookouts and travel, it’s the national holiday honoring military personnel who died defending our freedom. It was first recognized as “Decoration Day” in 1868, shortly after the Civil War. In 1971,…
The Friday File: With 2025 almost here, let’s resolve to improve the passwords we use. To that end, here are the ten most popular passwords, all of which should be avoided. #10 is abc123, then 12345, followed by (wait for…
From 2010 until Covid, the neutral rate, the Fed funds rate that was neither expansionary nor contractionary, was near zero and rarely exceeded 2%. Many expect that going forward, the neutral rate will be systemically higher. The combination of a…
The Friday File: On Thursday, my favorite comedian Bob Newhart died. His 1961 record “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (which I remember vividly) quickly led to “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back. At one point they were #1 and #2…
The Friday File: On 4/20/24, Swedish pole vaulter Mario Duplantis broke his world record, clearing 6.24m, 20.47ft. The old record was 6.23m. Duplantis gets a check of up to $100,000 whenever he breaks the record. The great Ukrainian pole vaulter…
The current average U.S. real estate commission is 5.49%. The listing agent receives an average of 2.83% while the buyer’s agent receives 2.66%. For a $400,000 home, that works out to a commission of $21,960. Hawaii has the lowest average…
The accidental destruction of the critical Francis Scott Key Bridge has rendered the Port of Baltimore unusable indefinitely. The Port is the 11th largest by container imports with 559,000/year 20-foot equivalent units. LA/Long Beach is tops at 8.2 million, then…