Economics / Weekly briefings
Weekly briefings
A short, data-grounded recap of the U.S. economy each week. The headline figures come from federal sources and major exchanges, and every chart and quote is linked to its origin.
Weekly Outlook · June 22, 2026
Tornadoes do not kill people evenly, and the pattern is fixable
We totaled every U.S. tornado death from 2008 through 2025. The same two facts show up year after year: the danger sits in the Deep South, not the Plains, and most victims were in a mobile home.
Tornadoes killed 1,461 people in the United States from 2008 through 2025. We added up every one of those deaths by state, by storm strength and by where the person was sheltering. The numbers point at a problem that money and building codes could actually solve.
Weekly Recap · June 13, 2026
America's most dangerous city is one most people never think about
Jackson, Mississippi looks like the deadliest city in the country. The reason you rarely hear that is the same reason it stays dangerous: almost nobody is counting.
We just ranked every American city of 10,000 people or more by how many murders it records for its size. The city at the top is not Chicago or Baltimore. It is Jackson, Mississippi. The only reason that surprises people is that Jackson has nearly stopped telling the federal government what happens inside it.
Weekly Recap · May 22, 2026
The war is in the pump. Not in the index.
WTI crude has nearly doubled this year on the Iran war. The stock market keeps making fresh highs. Only one of those readings can be right.
WTI crude oil closed Monday at $112.25 a barrel. That is up 10.5% in a single week and up 96.2% since the start of the year. At the same time the S&P 500 hit a fresh high of 7,473 and the NASDAQ Composite is up 11.3% year-to-date. Two markets, one war, and only one of them is acting like the war is real.
Weekly Recap · May 16, 2026
Two stock markets, one economy
The NASDAQ is having one kind of year. The S&P MidCap 400 and the Federal Reserve's Beige Book are having another.
The NASDAQ is up almost 11% so far this year. The S&P MidCap 400 is down a bit over the past month. Both of those facts are about the same U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve's latest report on business conditions suggests the second one is closer to how the economy actually feels right now.