January 18, 2021
Last year’s S&P 500 earnings are estimated to have fallen by 15% but the index, including dividends, finished up 18.4% in 2020 and set 33 record highs during the year. Axios, January 7, 2021
Epidemiologists at Emory University in Atlanta believe that raising the minimum wage in the U.S. by $1 would have prevented 27,550 suicides since 1990. A $2 increase would have prevented 57,000. The Economist, January 20, 2021
Last year, U.S. bankruptcy filings – thanks to unprecedented fiscal and monetary support – hit their lowest level since 1986. However, chapter 11 filings, which are primarily used to reorganize larger businesses, jumped 29%. Axios, January 6, 2021
There are points in the Pacific Ocean where, if you dug a hole to the opposite point on Earth, you would still be in the Pacific Ocean. Permaculture Research Institute, May 25, 2017
According to the WSJ, business travel will drop by up to 36% in the post-pandemic world. Bill Gates is even less optimistic. He recently projected business travel would decline by more than 50%. Business travelers only make up 10% of airline passengers across major carriers, but they account for 55%-75% of revenue. The Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2020
Digital wallets, that store cryptocurrencies, have soared in value but some investors can’t cash in because they forgot their passwords. One programmer in San Francisco has two password guesses left before being locked out, to access a wallet containing 7,002 bitcoin, or $220 million. Newsweek, January 12, 2021
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” Stephen King
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