Economy

“There are people close who are in need”

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Several churches joined forces to distribute food on Friday as part of the “Simultaneous Free Food Giveaway.

“The Rev. Derrick Scobey, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, helped coordinate the event, partnering with World Vision and Joey Abbo, chief executive officer of the Needs Foundation. The humanitarian aid organization and the foundation supplied the food that was distributed on Friday.

Oklahoma churches, leaders join forces for ‘simultaneous’ food distribution — https://oklahoman.com/article/5678143/oklahoma-churches-leaders-join-forces-for-simultaneous-food-distribution

If you have the means to help please help others in need.

Failure to Launch – 2020

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Failure to Launch was a movie released in 2006 starring Matthew McConaughey. Failure to Launch 2020 version is summarized in this chart:

Failure to Launch 2020 – Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live With Their Parents – https://www.visualcapitalist.com/us-young-adults-living-with-their-parents/

On a related note see Scary Charts 08.08.20 – Surge In Number of Americans Moving In With Older Family Members and Older Adults Living with Younger People Face Increased Risk for COVID-19 Mortality (if you’re Swedish)

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”

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“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

Mike Tyson

The drop in the volume of employment in a given sector always has a ripple effect in the national economy. The loss of so many high-paying jobs in a short time will be a dent in the coffers of Los Angeles County and for New York state in the short term. Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based National Employment Law Project, says it hits at a time when other industries are undergoing similar sweeping realignments with huge human toll.

“Nobody’s got a plan for how to transition these massive sectors of the workforce into a different thing,” Evermore says.

Hollywood Grapples With Mass Layoffs as the Biz Redefines Itself for Streaming Future — https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/hollywood-layoffs-streaming-future-1234838650/

I sat for a few minutes thinking about what to write next when Charlie Hunter popped into my head. Hunter titled one of his albums with the Tyson quote.

Which was then followed by some great advice from Charlie on his strategy for success and survival in the years to come.

Don’t wait until you get punched in the mouth to make your Plan B. And while you’re at it you might want to come up with a Plan C as well.

Scary Charts San Francisco Edition – Nov. 2020

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There were 2,532 homes listed for sale in San Francisco at the end of October, up 77% from the same week a year ago, according to data from Redfin. About two-thirds were condos. According to data from Compass, inventory of condos for sale was up 85% year-over-year. Inventory of single-family houses was up 25%:

Condo Prices Drop 9% in San Francisco, All-Time Record Inventory Glut Piles Up — https://wolfstreet.com/2020/11/05/condo-prices-drop-9-in-san-francisco-all-time-record-inventory-glut-piles-up/

Meanwhile in Aspen…

In 2019 throughout the entire year, 27 residential properties sold for a price over $10 million. So far this year, a record 48 properties have sold for prices over $10 million, of which 39 have sold since April. This is twice the volume of 2019 and we still have almost four months remaining in the year.At the beginning of 2019, the median price per square foot of a residential property in Aspen was about $1,350. At the end of August, that median square-foot price had risen roughly 15% to about $1,550. In the Snowmass market at the beginning of 2019, the median price per square foot for a residential property was about $680. At the end of August, that median price had risen to about $760, a roughly 12% increase.

Small: The pandemic and rising real estate values locally — https://www.aspendailynews.com/opinion/small-the-pandemic-and-rising-real-estate-values-locally/article_3d9ffcfc-fbaa-11ea-8b7b-379359f41398.html

And since I have your attention down here near the end of the post about that mask debate in Oklahoma…

https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov/ Weekly Epidemiology and Surveillance Report
…the needs of the few

Young People Driving Huge Life Insurance Application Gains: MIB

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The third quarter experienced the largest quarter-over-quarter gain since 2011 at 9.2%, MIB said, driven primarily by 12.8% growth in 0-44 age group and 9.2% growth in 45-59 age group.

Young People Driving Huge Life Insurance Application Gains: MIB — https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/young-people-driving-huge-life-insurance-application-gains-mib-says?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=young-people-driving-huge-life-insurance-application-gains-mib-says#.X4DaDnV7nhc

OD Deaths Involving Cocaine On The Rise

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The rate of drug overdose deaths involving cocaine was stable between 2009 and 2013, then nearly tripled from 1.6 per 100,000 in 2013 to 4.5 in 2018.

NCHS Data Brief No. 384, October 2020 — https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db384.htm

Memo to all of my friends in the mortality risk business:

With so much attention being paid to Covid-19 it’s easy to forget people die from other causes. Don’t forget this.

The Beginning of the End

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Airlines want more from the government printing press.

American Airlines was also the airline that blew, incinerated, wasted, and trashed more than any other airline on share buybacks. Buybacks ceased in the second quarter, but from 2013 through Q1 2020, American Airlines incinerated $13.1 billion in cash on share buybacks. That cash would now come in very handy. 2013 was also the year Mr. Parker became CEO of American Airlines. Delta blew, wasted, and incinerated $11.7 billion in cash on share buybacks over the period; Southwest Airlines, $10.9 billion (starting in 2012); and United $8.9 billion. In total, the big four airlines blew, wasted, and incinerated $44.6 billion in cash on share buybacks from 2012 through Q1 2020, and now the airlines want an additional $25 billion bailout, for a total of $50 billion, much of it in forms of grants, from taxpayers (data via YCharts)

Facing Crappiest Recovery Ever, Airlines Demand New $25-Billion Bailout, for $50 Billion Total, after Having Burned $45 Billion on Share Buybacks — https://wolfstreet.com/2020/09/28/facing-crappiest-recovery-ever-airlines-demand-new-25-billion-bailout-for-50-billion-total-after-having-burned-45-billion-on-share-buybacks/

Just. Say. NO.

Quote for Today – 09.19.20

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Higher education committed suicide with its dual racketeering model. First was the college loan racket, in which schools colluded with the federal government to jam too many “customers” through the pipeline who didn’t belong there, and who buried themselves under a lifetime debt obligation they could never escape. The second was the intellectual racket of creating sham fields of study that contaminated all the other “humanities” with poisonous bullshit theory, and eventually even invaded the STEM disciplines. Covid-19 screwed the pooch on all that, scotching the four-year party-hearty in-residence part of the deal. For now, who needs an online class in Contemporary Sexual Transgression ($2000-a-credit) when you can just click on Porn-hub for free? Hundreds of colleges and universities will be going out of business in the years ahead.

James Howard Kunstler — https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/things-going-by/#more-‘

Quote for Today – 09.16.20

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We do not, as these numbers show, live in one economy. We are a tale of too many economies. There are no one-size fits all solutions, though several trillion dollars more of spending surely will benefit everyone. No part of the country is unaffected by the past months, but some parts are devastated and others merely dented. A sense that we are actually all in this together would dictate that we only thrive when most of us thrive, but that sense was not prevalent enough before this crisis for it to be demonstrable during. Instead, our many economies are making collective stories impossible and added to the sense of fracture that the presidential election and pandemic are magnifying.

America is a Tale of Fractured Economic Realities and That’s Stopping Us From Fixing this Crisis — By Zachary Karabell September 15, 2020 1:30 PM EDT — https://time.com/5888267/america-fractured-economic-realities/

29 Million Americans Don’t Have Enough to Eat

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According to a new report commissioned by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), as of July, the number of people who said they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat has skyrocketed to 29 million, or 11 percent of adults in the United States. (By comparison, 8 million adults, or around 4 percent, did not have enough to eat in 2018.) In 38 states and Washington, D.C., more than one in ten adults with children had inadequate amounts of food, with the highest rates of hunger in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas…

Now, new data from the Census Bureau, referenced in the report, shows that even America’s middle class is now reckoning with hunger. Two years ago, only 3 percent of adults earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year said they did not have enough to eat; during the pandemic, that rose to 8 percent. Similarly, 5 percent of adults earning between $35,000 and $50,000 reported that hunger in 2018; now, it is 12 percent. 

https://thecounter.org/covid-19-hunger-food-insecurity-crisis-america/