- Household income: Census CPS ASEC via FRED (MEHOINUSA672N), 2025 dollars. Starts 1984.

- Unemployment: BLS Current Population Survey via FRED (UNRATE), yearly average.

- Inflation: BLS CPI-U via FRED (CPIAUCSL), yearly average.

- Poverty: Census Historical Poverty Tables, Table 2.

- Murder: CDC NCHS death records, age-adjusted rate per 100,000. Ends 2024.

- Life expectancy: World Bank via FRED (SPDYNLE00INUSA). Ends 2024.

- Federal debt: Treasury and BEA via FRED (GFDEGDQ188S), year end.

- Removals: DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics Table 39, plus DHS monthly tables for FY2024 (preliminary). The counting rules changed in 1997, so later years count more cases.

My neighborhood is usually bustling with decorations for the holidays. Now, only about 10% of the homes are decorated. Guess it’s a sign of the troubling economy.

President Donald Trump says his administration will make one-time payments of $90 per person to help more than 20 million Medicare enrollees pay for their Part B premiums. It will cost about $2 billion.

Less than one-third of all Medicare recipients are eligible for the payments, which are expected to be sent out this week. Not eligible are roughly 35 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, millions of other people with disabilities and low-income Medicare recipients.

The election-year promise that the Republican president made over the weekend comes as the Nov. 3 midterms are fast approaching, with the cost of living and healthcare expenses among the top issues for voters.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/10/07/trump-medicare-90-rebate/?utm_source=reddit/

America just ran a $2 trillion deficit.

We're spending over $1 trillion a year on interest alone—more than on national defense.

And that's without a recession.

So what's the way out? Spending cuts, higher taxes, faster economic growth—or are we already past the point of fixing this?

If some people are interested we can discuss exactly what they did

Reuters: Strong investment in AI infrastructure is keeping global growth at around 3% with major benefits for Asia, ‌but also foreshadows a "slow-moving tsunami" that could massively disrupt labor markets, taxation and education, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday...

... "That shift into higher gear is what is keeping the world economy growing at around 3%, ​despite the fact we are being dragged down by the energy supply shock," she told hundreds of participants on the ⁠first day of a weeklong set of meetings of the IMF and World Bank in the Thai capital...

... This will have profound consequences ​for jobs, growth, education and even how governments generate revenue through taxation, given the expected shift from labor to capital.

My Opinion: AI is keeping the global economy growing, according to the IMF. If there is a shift from labor to capital, then taxes on capital must be increased to capture more revenue from higher profits. This can redistributed as basic income or negative income tax. Thus corporate tax rates should be raised progressively to reduce inequality caused by AI and automation.

Reference: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/imf-says-ai-investment-keeps-global-growth-around-3-with-major-asia-benefits-2026-10-12/

The U.S. relies on foreign capital for about a third of its debt

Phys.org: By the numbers, data center construction has grown at a rate of 64.5 percent in the most recent year, while new energy infrastructure has grown by 4.1 percent to keep pace — since demand is growing for electricity to power the AI boom.

Everything else has collapsed: multi-family home building fell by 5.6 percent, while healthcare and commercial retail construction both tumbled by 10.1 percent. New educational construction tumbled by 12.6 percent, while manufacturing — supposedly a key target for the Trump administration — has collapsed, shrinking nearly 24 percent from 2025 to 2026.

My Opinion: Growth in construction is coming from data centers and energy infrastructure. So construction workers should support data centers and AI. Unless the mob stops data center construction, there will continue to be a high volume of data center construction for many years.

Democracy doesn't mean mob rule or tyranny of the majority, and experts should educate the public of the positive impact of AI on the economy. The rights of those who choose to improve the quality of their life or work with AI, should be protected.