Recessions, Stocks, Christmas
The US playing card company, Bicycle, manufactured cards to give to all Prisoners of War in Germany during WWII as a Christmas present. These cards, when soaked in water, revealed an escape route for the POWs. Decks of these cards are said to have helped at least 32 people escape. Business Insider, December 22, 2016
Recessions are nothing new for the economy- since 1854, we have experienced 33 of them, lasting an average of 17.5 months. Marketplace, December 19, 2018
“You never own the right number of stocks. You either own too many or too few.” Anonymous
US non-financial corporate debt has climbed to roughly 0.46 times the size of the gross domestic product, exceeding its peak of about 0.45 times GDP during the 2008-2009 contraction. Barron’s, December 17, 2018
The third year of a presidential cycle has been positive for the DOW in all but one instance in the past eight decades: 1939, at the outset of WWII, when it dropped 2.9%. Barron’s, December 17, 2018
A 1955 Sears advertisement was supposed to print the phone number of a store where children could call and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas, however, the number printed was to the hotline for the US Continental Air Defense. Colonel Shoup ordered his staff to give the children updates on the flight coordinates of Santa and the tradition continues to this day. The Fact File, December 8, 2018
According to UNICEF, there are 2,106 million children under the age of 18 in the world. Assuming each household has an average 2.5 children, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve. Larry Silverberg, a professor of aerospace engineering suggests that Santa uses “relativity clouds” which allows Santa to stretch time like a rubber band which gives him months to deliver gifts, while only a few minutes pass for the rest of us. 12 Fun Christmas Facts