Unexpectedly Intriguing!
Knots hold a special place in the hearts of sailors and mathematicians. That's almost self-explanatory for sailors, who have been tying knots as an essential part of their craft for centuries. They even used them to tell how fast they're going over open water. Mathematicians' fascination with knots is harder to explain, but comes down to their love of counting. The more complicated the knot, the…
Measuring economic activity using astronomical and other scientific tools is a relatively recent development that has come into its own during the 21st century. One of the neater tools are telescopes and cameras mounted on Earth-orbiting satellites that take pictures of the night-darkened surfaces of the world. NASA's Black Marble project uses those images to tracks how the nighttime lights spread…
As expected , the value of goods exchanged between the U.S. and China increased in June 2026. The U.S. Census Bureau reports a combined total of $34.7 billion worth of goods were processed through U.S. ports during the month. Both outgoing exports to China and incoming imports from China increased month-over-month. Exports rose 5% from $9.117 billion to $9.571 billion and imports grew 7% from…
Depending on how old they are, U.S. teens are having a very different summer job experience in Summer 2026. For older teens, Age 18 and 19, the job scene is fairly good. The seasonally adjusted number of teens for this portion of the working teen demographic appears to be fairly steady, if not increasing. But younger teens, Age 16 and 17, are increasingly finding themselves on the outside of the…
The S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) shot up by nearly 3.6% over it's closing value in the previous week, reaching a new record high closing value of 7,757.46 by the end of the trading week ending on Friday, 7 August 2026. Strong earnings being reported in the early part of the week provided much of the stock market's upward momentum, with technology and materials stocks providing much of the boost . The…
Some inventions are so old that we don't know the names of their inventors. Handaxes made from stone. The bow and arrow . Bricks . The wheel . Well, maybe not the wheel, because we do know the name of its inventor! The wheel was invented by John Keogh, who was awarded Australian Innovation Patent 2001100012 for its invention in May 2001. We're not making this up! Here's a colorized version of…
The average mortgage payment on the typical new home sold in the U.S. rose above the upper limit of affordability for the typical American household in May 2026. The change comes eight months after the affordability of the median new home had finally become affordable for households earning the median household income for the first time since March 2022. A combination of rising mortgage rates and…
Two months ago, the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) was rising so quickly it raised the prospect the index could see a break down in the relative period of order the index established since the end of 2023. Instead, after peaking on 2 June 2026, the S&P 500 has reverted toward its established mean trajectory. Through the end of July 2026, the index is hovering right around that 31-month-old central trend…
Motio Research 's initial estimate of U.S. median household income for June 2026 is $88,110 , a $370 (or 0.4%) decrease from the firm's initial estimate of $88,480 for May 2026. Here are screenshots of the interactive charts Motio Research provides to visualize trends in the U.S.' median household income. The first chart presents the firm's Household Income Index, which is based on a three-month…
The direction the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) takes is shaping up a lot like a playing a game that has a 50% chance of winning or a 50% chance of losing. Investors saw that game play out during the past week as several of the Big Tech companies that dominate the index reported their earnings and updated their outlooks. For example, the world's biggest company, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) briefly touched a $5…
Colossal Biosciences is a biotechnology company that's taken on the challenge of reviving extinct species as a core part of its mission. Earlier this year, they announced success at breeding chickens using their artificial egg technology, which they see as key to "de-extincting" large avian species like New Zealand's moa . They publicized the achievement in a video that gives strong Jurassic Park…
The U.S. new home market continued stumbling along in May 2026. Political Calculations' initial estimate of the total value of new home sales in the United States during May 2026 is $28.62 billion. This value is slightly higher than the initial estimate of $28.30 billion for April 2026, which has been revised downward to $28.18 billion for this month. This estimate rose largely because average new…
There are thirty stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Index: DJI ), the U.S. stock market's oldest running index . Unlike the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ), the market capitalization-weighted index that's overtaken it as standard for measuring the performance of the U.S. stock market, the component stocks of the DJI are weighted according to their price. For example, the stock of Goldman Sachs…
July 2026 saw positive changes overall for the Thanksgiving Leftover portfolio made up of the ten worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) as of Thanksgiving 2025. At least, as compared to how they fared in June 2025 . The equal-weighted weighted version of the portfolio overtook the market cap-weighted version over the past month. Through the close of trading on 27 July 2026, the…
The S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) fell a little under 0.7% during the trading week ending on Friday, 24 July 2026. The index ended the week at 7,408.70 , which is 201.08 points (or 2.6%) below its all time record high of 7,609.78 from 2 June 2026. The past week didn't see a single catalyst to weigh on stock prices, but rather three of them. Oil prices briefly shot up over $100 per barrel with the Iran…
Keeping your digital accounts secure is a never ending arms race. Computing technology increases in capability every year. For hackers with access to the latest, greatest computers and code, it is easier than ever for them to run through tens of millions of combinations of characters to discover your passwords. What you thought might be a safe and secure password a few years ago may now be…
Is it time to send the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey off to the not-so-useful data junk heap? The answer to this question hinges on whether the survey is really useful or not. Useful data will quantify information that tells us something useful about what it purports to measure. In the case of the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Survey , it should provide accurate information…
The Global Carbon Budget offers a wealth of data on carbon dioxide emissions. That includes estimates of how CO each nation has emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in each year since 1850. The latest edition of the report covers emissions from that year through 2024. But that's not the whole story for atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. When carbon dioxide is emitted into the air, it enters into…
The rate at which carbon dioxide emissions accumulate in the Earth's air fell in June 2026. This measure of human economic activity is now at levels last seen near the bottom of the coronavirus pandemic. Because China is the world's leading producer of carbon dioxide emissions by a wide margin, the changing concentration of CO in the atmosphere is really telling us quite a bit about the relative…
The S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) retreated 1.5% from its previous week's close to end the week at 7,457.69 . Much of the market's downward movement came in response to a growing awareness among investors of the high cost of utilizing the most advanced AI systems over the last several weeks. The shift in sentiment has largely capped the upward movement of these stocks despite many having just reported…
In the last decade, proof assistants have revolutionized how mathematicians establish whether a mathematical theory is valid. One in particular, called Lean , has risen to the forefront of the field. Its productivity-enhancing capabilities are behind several notable proofs that have been demonstrated in recent years. What's more, its integration with Artificial Intelligence technologies is…
A bottom is now in for trade between the U.S. and China. It might even be *the* bottom for the global tariff war that began in April 2025 but only time will confirm that for sure. What we do know for sure is that May 2026 saw the first increase in the rolling twelve month average of the value of goods exchanged between the U.S. and China for the first time since January 2025. There are also…
The dividend outlook of the S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) had a mixed outcome for July 2026. Dividends expected to be paid in the now current quarter of 2026-Q3 are slightly lower than what had been anticipated in our June 2026 snapshot , but the farther future showed continued strength as expected dividends increased. Here is our tally of how the expected future changed in the month from 15 June to 14…
The return of warm weather marks the end of soup season, and in 2026, it also marked the end of the big discounts that several grocery selling retailers were offering for Campbell's Tomato Soup in April. Since then, prices for Campbell's second-best selling soup have risen at four of the ten major national and regional grocery stores and retailers that we track. Even so, the rolling twelve-month…
The S&P 500 (Index: SPX ) rose 1.2% over its previous week's close, ending at 7,575.39 at the close of trading on Friday, 10 July 2026. Although in a new quarter, the next earnings season hasn't yet gotten underway, making the week one in which there was little news from companies to influence their outlook. But this week was also notable because there was also a notable lack of new information…