Friday

American households are navigating a complex credit landscape in early 2025 according to releases from the New York Federal Reserve.  Total household debt hit a record $18.04 trillion at the end of 2024, driven largely by credit card balances, which surged to $1.21 trillion.

Tariffs are essentially taxes imposed by a country on goods imported from abroad.  They serve multiple purposes: generating revenue for the government, protecting domestic industries from foreign competition, and sometimes as a tool in trade negotiations.  When a tariff is applied, it increases the cost of imported goods, making them less competitive against domestic products.

Tour guides are useful when exploring unfamiliar territories.  They can help make sure a trip accomplishes desired outcomes while making sure travelers avoid places where calamitous outcomes are more likely.  While they cannot directly prevent spoiled vacations, they help improve the odds that one will be enjoyed.

Growing positivity seems like a good idea most of the time for most people.  While the definition of what is and isn’t positive remains subjective, most would likely agree that there ought to be more of it.  According to this survey from Gallup, there was an uptick of positivity for the first

Greenland has been subjected to an intrusion.  About a billion years ago a tectonic plate was ripped away from a second which allowed magma to flow toward the surface but be sealed by what is now the south-west portion of the autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.  As the magma cooled, a giant rock developed containing 30 of the modern economy’s most desired raw materia

Humans have been competing against machines for a long time.  Take John Henry for instance; he was an African American freedman known for his ability to quickly drive steel into rock, making holes for explosives, blasting the rock to construct railroad tunnels.  As the legend goes, Mr.

Bridges are an important part of infrastructure.  They keep commerce humming when barriers need to be crossed.  Such obstacles can be either man-made like trains or natural like rivers.  Metaphoric bridges can also be built to close the gap between two nations, often also resulting in added commerce. 

Atlas thinks a lot about maps and modeling.  These tools allow us all to better understand complex systems without having to have every piece of information; think Alfred Korzybski’s idea that, “the map is not the territory.”  Nevertheless, these maps and models of cities, for instance, help us navigate large and everchanging transportation arteries across the nation

Hurricane Helene is the latest deadly hurricane to hit the US.  It is still relatively early, but the costs are soaring.  So far it has taken over 160 lives.  In addition to the death toll, it will cost billions of dollars to repair cities like Asheville, NC to their prior glory.  So much of this damage was caused by water, a lot of water. 

I’ve reached an age.  If you haven’t you will, and if you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  A few days ago, I walked into a restaurant and saw what was probably a middle-school student wearing a band t-shirt from my youth: The Cranberries.  I was immediately hit with the lyrics from their September 1994 (my sophomore year had just started) hit &ld