Same monthly home payment:

$500,000 home at a 2.5% interest rate

$270,000 home at a 8% interest rate

Return since 2020:

Google: 575%
Apple: 520%
Meta: 400%
Microsoft: 320%
Amazon: 185%

Build-A-Bear: 1,425%

Yes. The teddy bear company.

The typical American family can no longer afford the typical American home.

According to the Atlanta Fed:

• Income needed to afford a typical home: $127,000
• Median household income: $86,500
• Income gap: 46%

A $500,000 mortgage is now $3,500 per month, before taxes and insurance.

Home sales are near historic lows and prices are near record highs.

We’re now at the point where people who already own homes can’t afford to move, and people who don’t own homes can’t afford to buy.

2016:

Median home price: $240,200
Mortgage rate: 3.4%
Monthly payment: $850

2026:

Median home price: $430,100
Mortgage rate: 7.4%
Monthly payment: $2,400

That’s a 180% increase in just 10 years.

The U.S. annual budget deficit just hit its highest level since COVID.

The THIRD-LARGEST in American history.

Almost $2 TRILLION in a year.

The government spent 37% more than it collected.

And somehow, this isn’t the biggest financial story in America right now.

The rise in inflation on everyday goods came entirely from Trump’s tariffs, New York Fed research found.

New analysis shows the tariffs raised consumer prices by 2.9% by February.

Without the tariffs, prices on the goods studied would’ve fallen.

Layoffs announced in 2026 so far:

Volkswagen: 50,000 employees
UPS: 30,000 employees
Oracle: 21,000 employees
Amazon: 17,500 employees
Meta: 10,500 employees
Heineken: 6,000 employees
Microsoft: 5,500 employees
PayPal: 4,500 employees
Uber: 3,300 employees

POV: you just made your first mortgage payment on your new $500k home at 8% and found out your next-door neighbor paid $300k for the same home 5 years ago and has a 3% mortgage

Anthropic is now worth $965B. JPMorgan, the biggest bank in America, is worth $900B.

One took 227 years to get here. The other took 5.

Costco is packed at 10am on a Monday. The parking lot is full. Everyone looks 25 to 35.

Definitely a recession indicator if I’ve seen one.

JUST IN: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the world "should accept some bad things happening" for AI’s benefits.

Who gets to decide how much harm society should accept in the name of “progress”?

The number of grown adults who think they're getting a $5,000 midterm check is mind-blowing

Where are the DOGE checks?

Where are lower mortgage rates?

What happened to gas under $2?

Where are the $2,000 tariff checks?

When are electric bills being cut in half?

Where is the 10% credit-card interest cap?

What happened to bringing grocery prices down?

What happened to paying down the $40 trillion debt?

What happened to the “1,500%” prescription discounts?

10 years ago, the mortgage rate was 3.47% and the median home cost $232,200.

Today the rate is 7.3% and the median home costs $429,100.

You can’t afford a home because homes stopped being homes and became investments for people who already own one

JUST IN: Meta is using AI data centers to claim research tax credits, according to the NYT. Its total research credits reached almost $4,000,000,000 in 2025 alone.

It also counted Mark Zuckerberg’s $4.1 billion compensation as research spending to claim a $355 million tax break.

Apparently when you’re worth $2 trillion, a data center is a science experiment and your CEO’s $4 billion payday is research.

Maturing is realizing the biggest flex isn’t an expensive car. It’s a car with $0 monthly payment.

Nobody wants to borrow $500,000 at an 8% interest rate

After 10 years of payments you'll still owe $438,600

Nobody is buying a home today with an 8% interest rate. It's not happening.

The price of a Costco rotisserie chicken every year since it was introduced:

1994: $4.99
1995: $4.99
1996: $4.99
1997: $4.99
1998: $4.99
1999: $4.99
2000: $4.99
2001: $4.99
2002: $4.99
2003: $4.99
2004: $4.99
2005: $4.99
2006: $4.99
2007: $4.99
2008: $4.99
2009: $4.99
2010: $4.99
2011: $4.99
2012: $4.99
2013: $4.99
2014: $4.99
2015: $4.99
2016: $4.99
2017: $4.99
2018: $4.99
2019: $4.99
2020: $4.99
2021: $4.99
2022: $4.99
2023: $4.99
2024: $4.99
2025: $4.99
2026: $4.99

President Trump is now responsible for 29% of our national debt.

That's more than any President in American history.

What happened to DOGE?