December 26 2024

1. Cutting Federal Spending: An Unpopular Task
2. Tech-Driven Productivity Boom Fuels U.S. Economy
3. Netflix NFL Christmas Games Versus Cable’s Decline
4. U.S. Retail Real Estate Hits Record Low Vacancy
5. China's EV Sales to Overtake Combustion Cars
Disabling app notifications
December 26, 1982: Time magazine chooses a personal computer as its “Man of the Year,” the first non-human ever to receive the honor.

GET THE APP - FREE!

download

See the Ad Astra Podcast! Released on Apple and Spotify around 10a CST.

FLASH: 38 Dead in Airliner Crash in Kazakhstan Caused by Russian Air Defenses

1. Cutting Federal Spending: A Unpopular Task

Early last week, legislators from both parties agreed on a plan to keep the government funded until March. Then Elon Musk, co-head of President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) demanded that the 1,547-page bill be scuttled. “Either there is massive change or America goes bankrupt,” he wrote on X. When Congress passed a slimmed-down 118-page bill Friday, Musk posted to his followers, “Your actions turned a bill that weighed pounds into a bill that weighed ounces!”  But slim isn’t the same as cheap. The bill still included an eye-watering $100 billion for disaster relief and $10 billion for farmers. Separately, last week the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, agreed to boost Social Security benefits for some public-sector employees. The bill was just three pages long but will cost nearly $200 billion over 10 years. The federal deficit reached $1.8 trillion, or 6.4% of GDP, last fiscal year, a record outside of war, recession or emergency. Musk and Trump have promised to attack it by cutting federal spending. One simple step would be to stop adding to it. And yet last week neither stood in the way of Congress’s largess. Musk posted in favor of the money for disaster victims and farmers. The vice president-elect, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, co-sponsored the Social Security expansion. The reason is obvious: Spending is popular with voters and both parties. This is why commissions, think tanks and earnest outsiders have been papering Washington for decades with ideas to cut spending and the deficit—and mostly gotten nowhere. 

Editors note: the only realistic ways to meaningfully reduce federal debt % are 1) to grow the economy and 2) to make the healthcare system more efficient so massive Medicare costs (but not benefits) are reduced

Article Source: WSJ

2. Tech-Driven Productivity Boom Fuels U.S. Economy

The U.S. could be on the cusp of a productivity boom similar to the one triggered by internet technology in the 1990s. The outlook for the national debt, and much else, depends on it.  Worker productivity is regarded by economists as one of the most important drivers of long-term economic performance. It is essentially just the total output of the economy divided by the number of hours worked, aided by investments in technology and capital. When productivity is booming, it allows the economy to expand faster without triggering inflation. That has positive knock-on effects on all kinds of things, including the fiscal health of the federal government.  Quarterly fluctuations in productivity can be notoriously volatile. The pandemic rendered the data almost impossible to interpret, as both total output and hours worked swung violently. Recently, however, there has been a clear, and highly encouraging, upward trend.  Preliminary estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that total nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 2.0% from a year earlier in the third quarter—the fifth straight quarter of growth at or above 2%. That is significant as the average rate of growth for the five years before the pandemic was 1.6%.

Article Source: WSJ

3. Netflix NFL Christmas Games Versus Cable’s Decline

A. “People look at the performance of Congress and say, ‘Why should we give them more money?’” Raju asked. “What about the media?” Durbin countered. “Half of your listeners are not there anymore, and you’re still getting the same paycheck. What’s going on?” Television executives are also wondering what’s going on. The questions are particularly loud at CNN, which has seen a decline in viewership over the past few years, a trend that accelerated after the Nov. 5 election. Since the election, CNN has seen a 45 percent drop in prime-time viewership, down to only 394,000 total viewers. Overall, this year CNN has had its worst-ever performance among viewers in the key demographic. In some ways, it’s unfair to pick on one particular network. Television viewership is down across the board, as viewers unsubscribe from pricey cable packages and opt either for cheaper streaming packages or free content on YouTube or social media platforms.  

B. The big picture, of course, is the burgeoning relationship between the NFL and Netflix. The streaming giant and the NFL announced a three-season deal in May to air Christmas Day games in 2024, 2025 and 2026. That deal becomes even more magnified given Netflix recently secured the exclusive broadcast rights in the United States for the 2027 and 2031 editions of the Women’s World Cup. Netflix paid $150 million to air Wednesday’s games. That’s a rounding error for a company that has 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries. 

C. Over 200 countries tuned in at some point during Chiefs vs. Steelers. Chiefs vs. Steelers is already the 2nd most popular Live title on Netflix to date. Nearly 1/3 of Netflix’s Global Concurrents are watching Chiefs vs. Steelers. Netflix has eclipsed peak Concurrent viewers of any Christmas in the past 4 years today.

Article Source: WaPo, NYT, @NFLMedia

4. U.S. Retail Real Estate Hits Record Low Vacancy

Vacancies at open-air shopping centres in the US have dropped to historically low levels, defying forecasts of a retail apocalypse caused by the rise of ecommerce.  Landlords of complexes anchored by big-box chains, discount merchants and supermarkets have gained power to raise rents as leases expire. New construction has been stymied by higher interest rates and soaring building costs.  Only 6.2 per cent of outdoor shopping centre space is currently available for rent, according to property data company CoStar, the lowest since it began tracking availability in 2006. The trend stands in contrast with enclosed shopping malls, where vacancies are rising.

Article Source: FT

5. China's EV Sales to Overtake Combustion Cars

Electric vehicles are expected to outsell cars with internal combustion engines in China for the first time next year, in a historic inflection point that puts the world’s biggest car market years ahead of western rivals. China is set to smash international forecasts and Beijing’s official targets with domestic EV sales — including pure battery and plug-in hybrids — growing about 20 per cent year on year to more than 12mn cars in 2025, according to the latest estimates supplied to the Financial Times by four investment banks and research groups. The figure would be more than double the 5.9mn sold in 2022. At the same time, sales of traditionally powered cars are expected to fall by more than 10 per cent next year to less than 11mn, reflecting a near 30 per cent plunge from 14.8mn in 2022.  

Editors note: there are two very important differences between China and America when it comes to EVs: 1) oil imports are a national security problem in China and 2) the geography of Chinese population density. China imports about 2/3 of the oil it needs, a strategic weakness. In contrast, the US is energy independent. Dense, urban cities on China’s coast lend themselves to range-limited EVs. America’s sprawling suburbs and vast interior does not.

Article Source: FT

Disabling app notifications

A future app update will allow subscribing to certain notifications (e.g. McPherson news and sports). In the meantime, all notifications go to all app users. If you want to disable notifications:  

iOS: Settings / Notifications then find citizen journal among the apps then uncheck “Allow Notifications” 

Android: Settings / Notifications / App notifications then find citizen journal among the apps then uncheck “Allow Notifications”  

Note: this turns off ALL notifications

December 26, 1982: Time magazine chooses a personal computer as its “Man of the Year,” the first non-human ever to receive the honor.

Sponsors

Sources

2. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/how-to-cut-deficit-budget-trump-doge-11e287c6?st=wif4eU&reflink=article_copyURL_share

3. https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/the-u-s-needs-a-productivity-miracle-it-might-just-get-one-c1f4f8de?st=MLTnpx&reflink=article_copyURL_share

4. https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/12/25/cnn-ratings-decline-trump/
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6018940/2024/12/25/netflix-nfl-broadcasting-streaming-christmas/?source=user_shared_article
@NFLMedia

5. https://on.ft.com/4grGCHa

6. https://on.ft.com/4fCcN5F