We can probably all agree that 2020 was a unique investment year, with the pandemic ravaging the economy, reducing travel and even removing the normal commute to the office—and at the same time delivering above-average 15.76% returns on the S&P 500 index. But not every company sailed through the pandemic unscathed. Consider New Residential Investment, [...]
Space is the final frontier. Our military now has a space force. We are about to get a full report from the government on what it knows about UFOs. Space is in the news, from space tourism to the long-shot prediction by Elon Musk that humans will soon colonize Mars. But is space a growth [...]
It is sometimes not easy to realize just how big the U.S. economy is compared with the rest of the world. But a recent graphic published by the GZero organization gives a pretty good hint. Look at the map, and notice that North Dakota—one of the smallest states in the U.S. in terms of economic [...]
There’s a lot of buzz in the investment world about Bitcoin—and cryptocurrencies generally. Is it an investment? A real medium of exchange? Some of this interest undoubtedly comes from the fact that, in 2009, Bitcoins were selling for eight cents a coin. At the peak earlier this year, one of those coins was trading at [...]
You aren’t likely to find a bigger contrast in economic fortunes than the one between the U.S. and Europe as we finally come out of the pandemic crisis. In the U.S., the real gross domestic product—the sum of all goods and services produced in America—grew by an annualized rate of 6.4% in the first quarter [...]
When you’re buying homeowners insurance, and you’re one of the 63 million U.S. households that owns a dog, you should know that many companies have lists of dog breeds that they will not cover on the liability portion of the policy. Why? Homeowners insurance typically pays the victim whenever a dog bites or causes other [...]
The morbidity data collected by the U.S. Center for Disease Control doesn’t just collect statistics on morbidity due to diseases and suicide. There are other causes of death that seem strange but are surprisingly common. A few years ago, some researchers looked up some of the more unusual CDC codes, listed between 1999 and 2014, [...]
The American business landscape is booming again after a difficult 2020, but one sector did quite well in the pandemic year. Legal sales of marijuana rose (estimates vary) between 46% and 67% last year from 2019 to a record $17.5 billion in consumer purchases. Currently, 14 states allow adult recreational use, and 36 others allow [...]
Heart disease and cancer took more lives in 2020 than COVID-19 With all the publicity surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, you might be surprised to learn that COVID-19 was only the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020 (claiming an estimated 340,000 lives), behind cancer (599,000) and heart disease (691,000). But those statistics [...]
Good news on the soon to be post-COVID economy You already know that the U.S. stock markets are constantly testing all-time highs, and part of the euphoria is the idea that we may soon get our lives back. But is there any solid economic data to back it up? Recent Commerce Department data offers better [...]
