A Minority Debt Report

Comedian John Mulaney has a routine:   there’s a horse loose in the hospital . . . !!

***

Some Disney insiders worry that the company has become addicted to price hikes and has reached the limits of what middle-class Americans can afford, reports Robbie Whelan.

***

Sierra Bille has received $350,00 so far in scholarships and financial aid to attend New York University. The 24-year-old Las Vegas native applied to dozens of assistance programs to afford her longtime dream school, whose published cost for 2022-23 topped $82,000, including housing and living expenses.

***

A Minority Debt Report

I don't know where I found this but what is astonishing is that this view is considered a philosophy.

The Federal Reserve has tools to keep interest rates falling, including buying Treasury bonds from its member banks. This drives borrowing costs down. After the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed used tools like these to hold 10-year interest rates around 2 percent for more than a decade, despite a growing national debt. Why assume that such policies won’t work in the future?

Of the $35 trillion in U.S. national debt, only about $8-9 trillion is held by foreign countries. China, the debt hawk’s No. 1 boogeyman, holds only $816 billion or 2.3 percent of this $35 trillion. The rest — roughly $25 trillion — is held domestically by U.S. government agencies like the Social Security Trust Fund and military retirement funds, as well as private corporations. Foreign and domestic holders earn interest on their holdings, so the debt is a paying investment for them. For China and others, holding dollars also keeps their currencies cheap so they can export more.

Instead of obsessing over a government debt crisis that may never happen, it makes more sense to borrow and spend money to mobilize our immense resources to deal with immediate problems, as we did in World War II. The U.S. needs to support stressed working and middle-class families, respond to dangerous conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, counter China’s growing global influence, and manage the transition to cleaner energy and the rise of artificial intelligence.

This argument avoids the basic question of debt: can the cost of it be maintained without pain? Debt can be productive, as borrowing for seed for a crop. But often debt is malignant and a good signal is when money must be borrowed to maintain it.

USAID

Marriages in China plummeted by a fifth last year, the biggest drop on record, despite manifold efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to wed and have children to boost the country's declining population.

***

Since the 1990s, Democratic economic policy had largely been shaped by a technocratic approach, derided by its critics as “neoliberalism,” that included respect for markets, enthusiasm for trade liberalization and expanded social welfare protections, and an aversion to industrial policy. By contrast, the Biden team expressed much more ambition: to spend more, to do more to reshape particular industries, and to rely less on market mechanisms to deal with problems such as climate change. Thus, the administration set out to bring back vigorous government involvement across the economy, including in such areas as public investment, antitrust enforcement, and worker protections; revive large-scale industrial policy; and support enormous injections of direct economic stimulus, even if it entailed unprecedented deficits. The administration eventually came to dub this approach “Bidenomics.” This is from an informative article in Foreign Affairs, here:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/post-neoliberal-delusion

USAID

On her four-country tour through Africa in 2018 -- her first major solo international trip as first lady -- Melania Trump offered praise for what she described as "successful" USAID programs as she observed them up close.

The $50 million fund, known as W-GDP, was developed to be distributed by USAID with an ambitious goal of empowering 50 million women in developing countries by 2025.

The initiative was led by the president's daughter and then senior adviser, Ivanka Trump.

Apparently Rubio once had kind words for the agency.

These superficial endorsements have been floated as important discrepincies in USAID's recent critical evaluation.

But isn't that what fraud is: a discrepency between stated and planned aims? And isn't secrecy a part of that? “The documents my staff reviewed, on their face, failed to comply with standard classifications protocols. Only after demanding to speak to your USAID Office of Security, my staff uncovered that this data was, in fact, unclassified,” Senator Ernst wrote in a Tuesday letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The foolish projects that USAID has supported may not be charactistic of the agency. But don't they prompt a look? And don't they raise questions as to the judgment of the people in the program?

What is it about overseeing the program that is so upsetting?

 

Feminism and Global Warming

The Halftime Show was a classic arts representation of an intense, popular, minority paradigm: Commercialized revolution.
 
***

More countries have produced a nuclear bomb than can mass-produce a jet engine.

***

In his 2020 annual letter Larry Fink, the CEO of the largest asset manager in the world, mentioned the the words “sustainability” and “climate” nearly 50 times. In 2023 it was less than 10.

***

Feminism and Global Warming

Good news! 'UN Women' is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. They have a research arm. Yes, their own research arm. UN Women researchers find that feminism holds the real key to preventing the planet from global warming. This was reported in Scientific American! Scientific American!

From “How Feminism Can Guide Climate Change Action:”

The current economic system that underpins that status quo is rooted in the extraction of natural resources and exploitation of cheap or unpaid labor, often done by women and marginalized communities. This system therefore drives the climate crisis while perpetuating inequalities based on gender, race and class. It prioritizes the interests of corporations, governments and elites in positions of power and wealth, while destroying the natural environment that poor and marginalized people depend on the most.

So the jihad over faith-based global warming is not just about ending fossil fuel–based economies but a more fundamental transformation of our economic and political systems.

This is truly a rare outbreak of honesty in the so-called warming revolution. This is about political and economic power, achievable only by unilateral surrender of existing Western structures.

The paper focuses upon women from Indigenous and local communities who have used their traditional knowledge of tree species to lead sustainable forestry initiatives in Colombia; and in Bangladesh, during extreme floods, women relied on traditional rural cooking methods to provide food in remote affected areas.

These new systems would prioritize the well-being of people and the planet, over profits and elite power, to enable a more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and equitable future. This feminist vision builds on thinking from a diversity of cultural contexts and growing interest in “well-being economies.” For example, the Buen Vivir (Living Well) paradigm that underpins the development strategies of Bolivia and Ecuador is inspired by Indigenous knowledge and values that promote harmonious relationships between humans and nature.

So we are to abandon our current lives based upon Western knowledge and achievements which have elevated our living standards immeasurably over the last two hundred years in favor of the qualities of impoverished, autocratic, suppressed cultures reminiscent of the circumstances the Western miracle has overcome.

Bolivian and Ecuadorian cultures, as charming as they might be, will not rise to manage the world of Western technology, economy, and philosophy. They can meet only if the West declines to those more suppressed, primitive cultures. 

Strangely, the most important question raised by this plan for this new world is never asked: How will that decline be managed?

 

Sunday/Simon

What explains simultaneous sign language in a world of closed captioning?

***

Do our pets eat better than our ancestors 400 years ago?

***

Stagecoach was the major means of travel in the early Republic. Since the coaches averaged about two to three miles per hour, the trip from New York to Philadelphia could take at least three days. They were usually mule-drawn, not horse-drawn
A well known mule breeder was George Washington.

***



Sunday/Simon

In today's gospel, Christ preaches from a boat off the shore, then says to Simon the gospel's famous quote: "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Commentators love the symbolism of it but, after the catch, Simon says something puzzling. He says, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

Why would he say that?

Certainly, as the analysts say, Simon Peter, as a fisherman, may have been rightfully impressed. But enough to make a public confession to a stranger?

And he also took Christ's fishing suggestion against his own experience, then gave up his profession to be a disciple.

Whatever happened, Simon Peter was more than impressed.

Sat Stats

Sat Stats

The results reported in the national exam officially known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress show New York school districts are spending $89 billion this academic year.

Records show across the five boroughs, public schools spent an average of $21,112 per student in fiscal year 2023-24, though dozens of schools spent more – up to $60,000 a student.,

Despite the sky-high spending, only 33% of New Yoek fourth graders scored proficient in math and just 28% were proficient in reading last year.

Older students’ results were even worse – 23% of city eighth graders were proficient in math and 29% in reading.

Even more troubling is the huge racial gap in test scores within New York City.

The results show only 16% of black and Hispanic fourth-grade students were proficient in math, compared to 53% of white students and 58% of Asian students.

***

The Mars Climate Orbiter, built at a cost of $125 million, was a 638-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998, to study the Martian climate. It crashed on entering Mars's atmosphere. The engineers did not take into consideration that the units had been converted. i.e., the acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds^2 for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds^2. In a sense, the spacecraft was lost in translation.

Any confident in climate measurements or effective teaching techniques might ponder on this.

***

Only 3 of the top 50 largest Latin American companies are Argentine (22 are Brazilian, 14 Mexican, and 8 Chilean). Moreover, only 7 of the top 100 largest Latin American companies are Argentine.

There are just about $50 billion invested by Argentine companies abroad; compared to $300 billion from Brazil, $215 billion from Mexico, $140 billion from Chile, and $75 billion from Colombia.

Overcoming Chaos in Climate Science

USAID is a 10,000-person, $40 billion agency.

***

Philadelphia Eagles offensive linemen average 336 pounds and are 6 foot 6.

***

Roland Busch, CEO of Germany-based Siemens, said in an interview there’s overregulation in Europe that stifles competition. “We don't have one market. When you're a startup and you want to scale, I mean where do you go? You go to the United States. You can scale within one market."

***

Overcoming Chaos in Climate Science

A characteristic of the limited climate discussion is how caution is only one-sided. Concern is permitted on the climate side but not on the proposed 'solutions.' One-sided openmindedness is an oxymoron, unwise and anti-reflective. It is the hallmark of anti-science, superstition and its derivitives. This is from an interesting article that examins the arruracy of faith-based climate science, the models.

In chaotic systems, the results only appear to be random, but they’re not random at all — they’re entirely deterministic. If you knew exactly the initial conditions of such a system and could precisely describe the physical processes, you could predict tornados. It’s only due to our lack of knowledge these events look random. You can’t average away chaos.

Climate modelers address this problem by taking our limited data and using the uncertainties in the many model parameters to tune the models in order to force a fit to the data [3]. But the fit isn’t unique as there are many ways to tune the models,. They believe this history-matching will neutralize the sensitivity to the initial data, but as soon as the simulation moves from the tuning phase to prediction, numerical dispersion takes over again.

Given this hypersensitivity to initial conditions, just how accurate is the temperature data that’s used in these models? There are certainly problems with the temperature data. Weather station instrumentation changes over the decades. Stations are relocated. There are maintenance and record issues, and very importantly, environmental changes.

The World Meteorological Organisation recognizes this and has set up a system for quality-ranking the location of weather stations, rating them from 1 thru 5. Naturally, meteorological bureaus are rather coy about how good their weather stations are according to WMO rankings. For example, I couldn’t find any data for the Australian Bureau weather station ratings, but I did find this chart for the UK Bureau [4] which seems to be a little more open than our own.

I don’t know how the UK weather station portfolio rates against the rest of the world, but I suspect it would be in the top tier. Station rankings 1 to 3 all have expected environmental errors less than 1 degree. But not even the top sites can measure to a trillionth of a degree. Rankings 4 and 5, 80% of the UK dataset, have errors of 2 and 5 degrees respectively. Basically, they’re junk.

They address this problem by averaging the data. For example, for each 100×100 km grid cell, there might one, ten or no weather stations. They average the good with the bad to come up with a representative temperature for each cell through what’s called a homogenization process, a fancy name for averaging. It’s easier to get Coca-Cola to reveal its secret recipe than getting the bureaus to reveal how this is done, and if a different homogenization algorithm is used, you will get a different temperature, far greater than a trillionth of a degree difference.

It’s clear that the certainty that many climate advocates place on these models and their data is grossly overstated, and more skepticism is required by decision-makers. I believe there should be audits of these models and their data, by statisticians from outside the climate industry. This is unlikely to occur after they saw what happened when McIntire and McKitrick tore apart Professor Michael Mann’s infamous hockey stick graph which was once used as an International Panel for Climate Change logo, but now quietly memory holed.

(This is from an article by Greg Chapman, a former computer modeler. I made a few additions and corrections.)

The News

 

The News

Some observations on the news of the last day:


--Biden has a Hollywood agency contract. What possible value does this inept and physically destroyed man bring to the table of any enterprise? Who would want to reward this man in any way? Or maybe it's just the reward of white privilege and male hierarchy.

--Several wild-eyed demonstrators have criticized Musk, crying out "I did not vote for him!" This is true, but what has he done so far? He is only an adviser. But it inconveniently--for them--raises the big question he is investigating, that of unsupervised government legislation by unelected bureaucrats. So their unhappiness with Musk should be generalized to all unbridled bureaucrats.

And...who voted for Jill Biden?


--The USAID kerfluffle has wisely avoided the content of the USAID actions (many quite outlandish and peripheral) and centers on the process of attacking it. How, the critics say, can the program be interfered with by executive action? It should be monitored and shaped by the only lawgiver, Congress. They are concerned over the assumption of executive action outside its purview. This is a lovely meal, rare and delicious, because the USAIDS program was not created by the legislature but rather by JFK's executive order. I am no fan of Trump's assumption of executive orders but I am opposed to all assumptions of power. The controlling of USAID by executive order is almost poetic in its symmetry.


--Gaza. I am unsure what Trump is offering with his grand suggestion the U.S. take over the Gaza Strip. But it is heart-stopping in its clear implication. He is saying, I think, that the current state of management of the Gaza Strip is humanitarianly intolerable. More, a military solution threatens the world and is inconceivable. Israel will not suffer terrorism any longer. And they will not suffer a knockout or take a standing eight-count. Israel will punctuate any defeat that compromises the country with nuclear retaliation. That will mean the end of the Middle East as a functioning entity.

So the current endgame in the Gaza dispute cannot be military. Period. Military positions will not be enhanced through negotiations. Intrangecence is homicidal and suicidal. There is no interest in this country to police crazies anymore. Being the only grownup at the table costs us too much--especially since everyone else at the table has no vision larger than their own provincial myopia. (What is the intent of the madmen in Yemen other than death and destruction and commercial disruption?)

Gender Surgery

Just for my personal pride, I would like to state that the father of my children was the first American druid in Diablo to clear the abattoir of zir and ended that season as best in the USA. He was also ranking in Polytopia, and beat Felix himself at the game. I did observe these things with my own eyes. There are other witnesses who can verify this. That is all.--Elon Musk’s ex-wife and Canadian musician Claire Grimes Boucher on Twitter

*** 

President Trump said he wants to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and urged Jordan and Egypt to take in refugees either temporarily or for the long term, a move that has been rejected by Arab countries since the war began.

Sometimes talking off the top of your head is not charming.

***

I heard an interview with Iran's 'vice president' He was very reasonable and persuasive. The Middle East problem, however, is beyond reason and persuasion.

***

China prides itself on having invented paper, gunpowder, printing and the compass, but hasn’t been known for making gigantic innovative breakthroughs since then. Yet, the Middle Kingdom has time and again managed to awe the world with its latest creations.

It’s because the Chinese are masters of a strategy that aims to achieve practical results rather than striving for perfection. DeepSeek is the latest example of the “good-enough” strategy.--Wei

***

Gender Surgery

There is little to no evidence that experimental gender procedures improve the mental health of gender-dysphoric children and teens.

The lead researcher of a government-funded study that began in 2015 admitted this week in an interview with the Times that the study did not support the claims of gender activists and explained that she had not released the data out of fear that opponents of gender medicalization would “weaponize” it.

The study, led by Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, is now under investigation by congressional Republicans, National Review reported. Not by Republicans and Democrats. Republicans. So we respond to bias with bias.

Science does not start with understanding, with an assumption to prove; it starts with ignorance and offers a speculation to disprove. One can see the limits here. Aristotle said that, with the right tools, he could cut anything in half. How, for example, can one evaluate a concept that cannot be measured objectively? 

Science is a process, not a belief system. It is incompatible with activism.  

Social Security in the Wild

DeepSeek’s latest AI models showed that shared research allowed a Chinese company to leapfrog better-resourced U.S. teams, writes Christopher Mims. The situation has intensified discussions about AI development: Some U.S. investors argue the technology should be developed in secret for national security purposes, while most engineers who build AI reject that

***

Almost half of Americans, and 65% of Gen Zers, said they plan to drink less alcohol in 2025, according to a survey by research firm NCSolutions.

***

Large firms like Amazon and Microsoft could spend up to $3 trillion by 2030 to build and operate data centers for their businesses, according to BlackRock Investment Institute.

***

Auto stocks suffered notable premarket declines, with GM falling more than 6% premarket. Tesla shares dropped 3% ahead of the open. The auto industry is potentially the most vulnerable sector to the 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports. Global auto stocks slid from Frankfurt to Tokyo.
Constellation Brands fell about 6% premarket.
"The postwar bipartisan consensus that the U.S. prospers by fostering cooperation and integration with allies and neighbors is gone." (wsj)

***

Social Security in the Wild

Social Security is and always has been an unworkable scheme rapidly approaching collapse. Economists point out that something has to give if the program is to avoid catastrophe, and so do the trustees who run Social Security.

This month, Pew Research found "large majorities of Trump (77%) and Harris supporters (83%) opposed any reductions in the Social Security program." In February, a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey revealed that 66 percent of Americans agree Social Security needs reforming, but "69 percent of respondents across all age groups opposed cutting benefits to those on Social Security, while 52 percent were against raising the retirement age and 44 percent opposed raising taxes on workers' income."

The victims of the scheme are not acting like victims but rather like co-conspirators.

"Thirty-seven percent of nonretirees between the ages of 30 and 49 believe they will get Social Security benefits, while 61% do not," Gallup noted last year.

Until 2010, Americans paid more in Social Security taxes than the program paid out in benefits. The extra money wasn't saved but passed on to be spent by the rest of the federal government in return for IOUs.

That is, there is no "trust fund."

That point passed as the ratio of workers to retirees dropped and seems unlikely to shift back given the country's declining birth rate and aging population. That means the difference between revenues and expenditures is now made up, as it is across the rest of the federal government, by borrowing. As Social Security cashes in those IOUs, the Treasury will borrow an estimated $4.1 trillion plus interest to fund the program between now and 2033. "It's like borrowing money to pay off credit cards," Cato's Boccia notes.

The mendacity and incompetence of the last four years are not enough to explain this. Rather, this is a long-term project. It's as if three blind men and an elephant are piloting the ship of state.

Sunday/Simeon

Ran, an advanced autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with cutting-edge sensors and technology designed to gather and analyze data in extreme underwater environments, has disappeared while exploring the huge Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica and is presumed lost.

***

Vogue has not had a Republican First Lady on its cover in 130 years.

***

                              Sunday/Simeon

The Feast of the Presentation is one of the oldest feasts of the Christian church. Also known as Candlemas, it is a Christian Holy Day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It is based upon the account in Luke 2:22–40, true to an old Mosaic law where the mother is "purified" 40 days after the birth of a boy, 80 days after a girl, and returns to society after seclusion. Following Leviticus 12: a woman was to be purified by presenting lamb as a burnt offering, and either a young pigeon or dove as a sin offering, 33 days after a boy's circumcision. At the same time, a boy was "bought back" from God, "ransomed," a reference to the deaths of the firstborns in the escape from Egypt.

While it is customary for Christians in some countries to remove their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night (Epiphany Eve), those in other Christian countries historically remove them on Candlemas.

I traditionally remove my Christmas decorations around the 4th of July

The blessed candles symbolize Jesus Christ, who refers to Himself as the Light of the World. It is interesting--and usually ignored by the rabbis--that Isiah, who references this "light of the world" image earlier, does it in terms of the Gentiles.

The family encounters a prophet, Simeon, who has been waiting his whole life for this moment.

Simeon offers a prophecy, said to be the first since Malachi in 420 B.C. (There is an argument that Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, prophesied first.) At any rate, it is a historic event. Part of what he says is often overlooked: "...for my eyes have seen the salvation which you have made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel." This is a startling line that includes the Gentiles in Christ's plan long before Paul.

But it is even older. Isaiah 60:1-3 says:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

This scene is the source of the T.S. Eliot poem, "The Song of Simeon," a poem surprisingly sad and ominous compared to the source's jubilation.

A Song for Simeon

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
The stubborn season has made stand.
My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace.
I have walked many years in this city,
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have taken and given honour and ease.
There went never any rejected from my door.
Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children
When the time of sorrow is come?
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation
Grant us thy peace.
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now at this birth season of decease,
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant Israel’s consolation
To one who has eighty years and no tomorrow.

According to thy word,
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation
With glory and derision,
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair.
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,
Not for me the ultimate vision.
Grant me thy peace.
(And a sword shall pierce thy heart,
Thine also).
I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.
Let thy servant depart,
Having seen thy salvation.

Sat Stats

This week a Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that 61% of U.S. adults support “downsizing the federal government,” while just 35% oppose it.
In the latest Economist/YouGov poll, respondents who favor “requiring all federal workers to work in person rather than remotely” outnumber those who oppose the idea by 11 percentage points—48% to 37%.

***

Ryan Michael English was arrested at the Capitol on Monday. English, who surrendered to officers, told them he had traveled to Washington intending to kill Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent or Speaker Mike Johnson—or burn down the Heritage Foundation. He was armed with Molotov cocktails.


***

William Stanley Jevons was a 19th century economist who observed that as steam engines became more efficient, overall coal use increased. His name comes up whenever improved efficiency drives resource consumption higher.
“As AI gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket,” Microsoft's Nadella said as DeepSeek's efficiency revealed.


***.

Six more current or former tennis players linked to a match-fixing syndicate in Belgium were given suspensions of varying lengths — one was barred for 15 years — and fined, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said Friday.
That brings the total to about 30 players punished for their connections to the syndicate run by Grigor Sargsyan, who was previously given a five-year custodial sentence.

***

A British-Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 15 months says she was detained for some time at United Nations facilities.

***

Sat Stats

 

“The climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.”--The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.

***

The TSA intercepted on average 18.2 firearms per day at security checkpoints in 2024. 94% were loaded.


***.

The pay gap between a typical college-educated man ($95,000) and male teachers ($65,000) in 2023 was $30,000, according to a WSJ analysis of census data stored at the University of Minnesota. The comparable gap for women was $12,000. Teachers say pay is one of the reasons for men’s limited interest in teaching, leaving boys with few male role models in the classroom.

***

O'Leary says regulations are 40% of the cost of house building.

***

64,000 girls participated in high-school wrestling last year, up from less than 10,000 in 2014.

***

The Department of the Interior manages roughly one-fifth of the United States' lands and waters. 20% of the nation.

***

As of recent data, to be considered among the top 1% of wealthy Americans, you would need a net worth of approximately $11.6 million. This figure starkly contrasts with the national average, highlighting the significant wealth disparity in the United States.

Moving down the percentiles, the top 2% threshold is about $2.7 million, while the top 5% begins at $1.17 million. The top 10% of wealthy Americans have a net worth starting at $970,900.

***

Median vs. mean:
As of 2022, the median net worth of all families in the United States was $192,900. This figure represents the “middle” point, where half of all families have a higher net worth and half have a lower net worth. It starkly contrasts the wealth thresholds discussed earlier, highlighting the significant wealth gap in the country.

The mean (average) net worth, on the other hand, was much higher at $1,063,700. The substantial difference between the median and mean net worth underscores the impact of high-net-worth individuals on the overall average, pulling it significantly higher than the median.

***

Nvidia shares tumbled 17% Monday, the biggest drop since March 2020, erasing $589 billion from the company’s market capitalization. That eclipsed the previous record — a 9% drop in September that wiped out about $279 billion in value — and was the biggest in US stock-market history.

***

Fully electric vehicles accounted for 96% of all new cars sold in Norway in the first few weeks of 2025, according to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

Last year, nine out of ten new cars sold were fully electric,

Many gasoline and diesel cars are still on Norway's roads. At the national level, about 28% of owned cars are fully electric, and in Oslo, the figure is over 40%.

***

The reading skills of American students are deteriorating further, according to new national test scores that show no improvement in a yearslong slide.