Six-Chart Sunday – You Cannot Be Serious?!?

Here’s six extraordinary news items from the past few weeks that, along with the French Open on TV, had me in full John McEnroe “You cannot be serious?!?” mode.

“Nvidia's 5-year credit default swap (CDS) is trading at ~38 basis points, slightly below the U.S. sovereign CDS, at 40 basis points. In other words, markets consider the world's largest company to be less likely to default on its obligations than the U.S. federal government.” (Kobeissi Letter)

If SpaceX’s IPO later this month goes as planned, Elon Musk will become the world’s first trillionaire. How much money is that? Enough to buy all 154 NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL & MLS teams AND all the TV networks carrying most of their games (NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, TNT,+)… with $53 billion left over for beer & hotdogs. (Charlie Billelo)

“Americans have never been richer than they are today… We haven’t had a real recession in 17 years. The stock market seems to hit new all-time highs every other day or so. The home ownership rate is 65%. Two-thirds of American households own stocks. The unemployment rate is 4.3%... [AND YET]… We are currently sitting at the lowest level of consumer sentiment in the past 75 years... Lower than the Great Financial Crisis, dot-com crash, Carter-Reagan recession, 1970s inflation & the start of the COVID pandemic.” (A Wealth of Common Sense).

Since 1999 — the last time the NY Knicks were in the NBA Finals — the CPI increased 2.0x, the PCE price index is 1.8x higher, and the cost of a beer & hot dog at MSG are up 2.6x (~$9.50 to ~$24.50). As for tickets…

(Prices per various sources identified by Gemini including NYT; WSJ; Lindy’s Sports; AS-USA; ABC7; FrontOfficeSports. Sources vary based on multiple factors).

The most expensive college tuitions have crossed the $100k mark. Last year, “when including housing and food costs, full-time students who live on campus at private four-year universities and colleges paid $60,920 a year. Adding the costs of books, transportation, and additional expenses increases that number to an average of $65,470, the College Board reported.” (Business Insider)

“California almonds use roughly 3–5.5 million acre-feet of water per year, depending on methodology. That's ~4-7x more water than all data centers in North America used combined in 2025.” (Colin McCarthy)

I spoke this week with entrepreneur / angel investor / author Auren Hoffman about AI, technology, starting careers in the roaring 2020’s and why he believes “If you can’t get a job right today, it’s your fault.”