Writer. Thinker. Intellectually curious citizen. Reporting on interesting factoids, data and information.
Joined August 2009
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By 2028, the US will be looking at a $45 trillion debt. Interest expense alone will likely consume over 20% of tax revenue. It will take a crisis to finally start tackling the debt problem.
Each passing month means more of the existing national debt has to be refinanced at higher rates. About one-third of the debt will mature in the next year. If inflation doesn’t fall, the Fed won’t be able to cut short-term rates and may need to raise them.
Gallup found that 89 percent of Americans agree that corruption is widespread in government, far higher than in any other developed country and comparable to levels found in Lebanon, Peru, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Independent voters made their mark in a big way. Early analysis shows that independent voters broke almost 2 to 1 for Democrats over Republicans, and in many races were more than the margin of victory. Independents determined outcomes from South Carolina to Florida to Texas.
Despite Trump's boasts, manufacturing has actually slowed since 2024, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.
In this election voters made decisions for themselves, regardless of tribal allegiance. In the end, many voters cast their ballots across party lines, proving that, even in this partisan era, we can choose to remain open, curious, compassionate and clear-eyed about what matters.
This October is on track to be the hottest ever recorded. Global projections suggest this month will be 1.76 degrees Celsius higher than preindustrial averages.
In the first two weeks of the war, Iranian missiles and drones pounded bases across the Persian Gulf, damaging at least 119 buildings at 13 installations.
The latest cost estimate of the Iran war stands at $47.1 billion. That doesn’t include damage to bases, which the Pentagon separately priced at a minimum of $5 billion, and could go as high as $15 billion.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised the elimination of the entire national debt in a single term of office.
The national debt now stands at $40.39 trillion.
Donald Trump has presided over two of the three-highest federal budget deficits in US history: 2020 and 2025 (the other was 2021).
The deficit now totals 6.2% of GDP, well ahead of the projected 2.3% GDP growth for the year.
In France, the retirement age is presently 62. But life expectancy is 83.5 years. The country's fiscal position is severely strained. The citizens are already rioting without anyone even suggesting that they raise the retirement age. Imagine what happens when they do.
Currently, 48% of the S&P 500 is below their 200-day moving average. A large proportion of the earnings growth in the S&P 500 comes from the magnificent seven stocks, especially Nvidia, which has a 70% gross profit margin. That's not sustainable.
Last year India passed the United States to become the world’s second-biggest builder of wind and solar, after China.
The US lost its position because Trump doesn't like wind or solar. Instead, Trump loves "beautiful, clean coal", whatever that is.
Germany nearly halves its fossil power use in 8 years. Fossil generation fell from 174.6 TWh in the first half of 2018 to 94.2 TWh in the first half of 2026, a 46% drop, according to federal statistics, and renewables now supply nearly 60% of the country’s electricity.
The public debts of big advanced economies have roughly doubled, relative to GDP, since the turn of the century. Even before the latest bond sell-off, the governments of these countries were forecast to spend 8% of tax revenues on net debt interest this year.
Dan Wang’s recent book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future juxtaposes China as a society led by engineers against the United States, which is led by lawyers.