Oppenheimer. That's the name of a popular movie that also happened to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2024, along with six additional Oscars. The movie told a story about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the U.S. physicist who led the successful American effort to invent the atomic bomb during the Second World War.
But that's not the only Oppenheimer who can claim credit for an invention. In 1879, Benjamin B. Oppenheimer of Trenton, Tennessee was awarded U.S. Patent 221,855 for his invention of an improvement in fire-escapes. His innovation was making a fire-escape into something a person seeking to escape a blazing building could wear in high fashion.
But don't take our word for it. Here's the illustration from the patent, which we've colorized:
Here's how Oppenheimer describes how he envisioned his inventions would work in practice:
The accompanying drawing represents a side view of a person with my improved fire-escape, shown as applied for use.
This invention relates to an improved fire-escape or safety device, by which a person may safely jump out of the window of a burning building from any height, and land, without injury and without the least damage, on the ground; and it consists of a parachute attached, in suitable manner, to the upper part of the body, in combination with overshoes having elastic bottom pads of suitable thickness to take up the concussion with the ground.
Referring to the drawing, A represents a head-piece, constructed in the nature of a parachute, and made of soft or waxed cloth, awning-cloth, or other suitable fabric. The parachute is about four-or-five feet in diameter, stiffened by a suitable frame, and attached by a leather strap or other fastening, in reliable manner, to the head, neck, or arms.
In connection with the head-piece or parachute applied to the upper part of the body are used overshoes B, with elastic soles or pads C, of suitable thickness, that take up the sudden shock on arriving on the ground.
The parachute serves for the purpose of buoying the body in the air after the person has leaped from the window of the burning building, while the padded shoes secure the safe landing on the ground.
Sixty-five years later, another Oppenheimer would, perhaps inspired by the concept of mushroom-like parachute rising above the intense heat of flames in the atmosphere, re-envision the other Oppenheimer's innovation as something quite different.
In any case, Benjamin Oppenheimer's invention combining a mushroom-like parachute hat (or even a parachute-like mushroom hat) with padded platform shoes ultimately led nowhere, with no indication of any modern application where they might be considered a vital fashion pairing for escaping a burning building.
From the Inventions in Everything Archives
The IIE team has previously covered the following wearable innovations:
- Inventions in Everything: A Corking Good Life Jacket
- Inventions in Everything: The Table You Wear
- Inventions in Everything: Sled Pants
- Inventions in Everything: The Beerbrella
- Inventions in Everything: Bulletproof Underwear
- Inventions in Everything: Treadmills Inside Your Shoes
- The Bike That Rides You
Labels: technology
How does the size of the S&P 500 (Index: SPX) compare with the biggest publicly traded companies in the world?
We've answered the question visually with the following image that combines two of Finviz' treemaps: one for the S&P 500 and the other for the World (minus U.S. stocks):
In this visualization, the S&P 500 is presented 'full size', while the World has been scaled 70% in the horizontal direction and 60% in the vertical from Finviz' full-size images. That scaling is roughly based on the relative areas of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (Taiwan: TSM), which is the largest company in the world outside of the United States, and Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) as Finviz presented in their combined treemap of the world's largest stocks according to their market capitalization. According to that visualization, TSM is about 8-9% bigger in area than AVGO, which we've replicated in our scaled version of Finviz' World map.
It's an interesting way to compare the size of the biggest U.S. firms with the entire stock markets of other regions. It's one thing to know that stocks like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) each have a bigger market cap than the entire Canadian stock market, for example, but it's quite another to see that comparison as we've shown it.
Labels: data visualization, stock market
The pace at which human carbon dioxide emissions are accumulating in the Earth's air held steady in April 2025. The trailing 12-month average of the year-over-year change in atmospheric CO₂ concentration was 3.29 parts per million.
That's a reduction of 0.28 parts per million, or about 7.9%, from the modern-era record of 3.57 parts per million recorded in December 2024. The change coincides with a sharp slowdown in China's economic output following boosted production aimed at beating expanded tariffs and trade restrictions on the nation's exports.
The slowdown is evident in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration data because China is, by a very wide margin, the world's leading producer of carbon dioxide emissions. The following chart shows how this measure has changed from January 2000 through April 2025:
The slowdown is evident in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration data because China is the world's leading producer of carbon dioxide emissions by a very wide margin.
The following tool gives an estimate of how much economic activity in worldwide (and predominantly in China) has declined since December 2024. If you're accessing this article on a site that republishes our RSS news feed, you may nbeed to click through ot our site to access a working version.
The tool's estimates are based on Jenny Cederborg's and Sara Snöbohm's 2016 paper. In their research, they investigated whether there is a relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions and identified a positive correlation between CO₂ emissions and GDP per capita. They found "CO₂ emissions increase by approximately 0.0002 [metric] tons (0.2 kg) per capita when GDP per capita increase by 1 dollar, holding all other variables constant".
That relationship doesn't take the effects of inflation into account, so the tool's results based upon it are likely understating the reduction in global GDP associated with the reduction in CO₂ emissions.
That said, global GDP for 2024 is estimated to be around $110 trillion, which means the indicated global GDP reduction of $9.3 trillion since December 2024, or about 8.5%, is substantial.
And to underscore the point, this figure represents a low estimate for GDP loss through March-April 2025 because of the effects of inflation recorded since 2016, which includes the period of high inflation unleashed by the Biden-Harris administration in early 2021.
References
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Earth System Research Laboratory. Mauna Loa Observatory CO2 Data. [Online Data]. Updated 5 May 2025.
Cederborg, Jenny and Snöbohm, Sara. Is there a relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions? Semantic Scholar. [PDF Document]. 2016.
Image credit: Stable Diffusion DreamStudio Beta. Prompt: "Digital art concept of carbon dioxide emissions being used to measure economic growth."
Labels: environment, gdp, tool
Three years ago, U.S. mortgage rates surged past the point where they put new homes outside of the affordable reach of the typical American household. Combined with the Biden-era inflation of new home prices, the majority of American households have not been able to afford the typical new home sold in the U.S. since March 2022.
Put another way, March 2025 represents the 36th consecutive month in which the monthly mortgage payment for the median new home sold in the United States would consume more than 36% of the pre-tax income of a household earning the median household income.
That's the upper threshold of household income that mortgage lenders use to determine whether they will lend to a household that has no other debt. For households that do carry other debt, many lenders prefer their monthly mortgage payments consume no more than 28% of their pre-tax household income.
This isn't saying much, but there is a bright side in the March 2025 affordability data. At 37.5% of median household income, it is within striking distance of falling below the upper threshold of affordability. The latest update of our chart tracks the changing relative affordability of the typical new home sold in the U.S. is for the typical American household with respect to the mortgage lending industry's key affordability thresholds from January 2000 through March 2025.
This affordability factor is based on March 2025's initial median new home sale price of $403,600, an estimated median household income of $82,971, and an average 30-year conventional mortgage interest rate of 6.65%.
Looking ahead to April 2025, the interest rate for the average 30-year conventional fixed rate mortgage ticked up to 6.73%. Assuming median household income is unchanged, the median sale price of new homes sold in the U.S. would have to fall by 4.6% to $385,000 to cross the upper threshold of affordability for a household in the exact middle of the U.S. income distribution.
Alternatively, if both the median sale price of a new home and median household income remains unchanged, the average mortgage rate would have to decline to about 6.27% for the median new home to drop to the upper limit of affordability.
About the New Home Affordability Crisis
The affordability crisis for new homes has its origin in the high inflation that was unleashed by the Biden-Harris administration's policies in March 2021. Although it rose slowly at first, the cost of monthly mortgage payment began to skyrocket after December 2021. As a percentage of median household income, the monthly mortgage payment for a new home climbed above the key 36% threshold of relative affordability in April 2022. The relative affordability of new homes has remained above this level for 36 consecutive months.
References
U.S. Census Bureau. New Residential Sales Historical Data. Houses Sold. [Excel Spreadsheet]. Accessed 23 April 2025.
U.S. Census Bureau. New Residential Sales Historical Data. Median and Average Sale Price of Houses Sold. [Excel Spreadsheet]. Accessed 23 April 2025.
Freddie Mac. 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgages Since 1971. [Online Database]. Accessed 9 May 2025. Note: Starting from December 2022, the estimated monthly mortgage rate is taken as the average of weekly 30-year conventional mortgage rates recorded during the calendar month.
Image Credit: Microsoft Copilot Designer. Prompt: "An editorial cartoon of a carnival sign that says you must be able to pay up to 36% of your income to have a mortgage".
Labels: personal finance, real estate
The S&P 500 (Index: SPX) retreated a half percent from its previous week's close, ending the trading week at 5,659.91. During the week, there were two big stories driving stock prices: the Fed's choice to not resume cutting U.S. interest rates until later in 2025 and the Trump administration's progress in its trade negotiations after it imposed higher tariffs on U.S. trading partners last month.
The Fed's reluctance to cut U.S. interest rates drew most investor focus in the early part of the week, which saw the index drop almost 1.5% through Tuesday as Fed officials were expected to punt on cutting rates. The market's direction changed on Wednesday after the news broke that U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators would meet during the upcoming weekend in Switzerland.
That change in momentum continued on Thursday as the U.S. announced its first major trade deal with the United Kingdom and as more information about the pending trade negotiations with China came out. Friday saw the upward momentum stall with no real new information to affect investor outlook.
The latest update of the alternative futures chart puts the index' trajectory in the middle of the redzone forecast range we modified in last week's edition of the S&P 500 chaos series.
The stage is now set for next week, when whatever news comes out from Switzerland over the weekend will drive stock prices. Speaking of which, here is are the headlines that represent the random onset of new information investors had to absorb during the trading week ending on Friday, 9 May 2025.
- Monday, 5 May 2025
-
- Signs and portents for the U.S. economy:
- Oil ends at four-year lows as OPEC+ accelerates output hikes
- Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign-made movies to save 'dying' Hollywood
- Fed policymakers expected to keep rates steady as tariffs roil outlook
- Bigger trouble developing in China:
- JapanGov minions back off threat to dump US treasuries:
- BOJ minions think they have time to hike Japan's interest rates:
- Nasdaq, S&P, and Dow ended lower ahead of the Fed's rate decision
- Tuesday, 6 May 2025
-
- Signs and portents for the U.S. economy:
- Oil rises 3% on signs of more Europe and China demand, less US output
- The heart of the US oil boom is slowing
- Diamondback lowers output forecast, says US shale at tipping point
- Tariff-Frontrunning Sparks Record Trade Deficit in March
- Bigger trouble, stimulus developing in China:
- China's services growth hits 7-month low as tariffs bite, Caixin PMI shows
- Thermal coal prices hit 4-year low in Asia as China imports wane
- Wall Street extends losses to a second straight day ahead of Fed rate decision
- Wednesday, 7 May 2025
-
- Signs and portents for the U.S. economy:
- Top officials from U.S. and China to hold trade talks on Saturday in Geneva
- Oil settles lower as hopes dim for US-China trade and supply worries ease
- Fed minions do what they were expected to do, despite rising risks to US economy:
- Fed likely to leave rates unchanged as it hunts for clarity on the economy
- Fed sees rising risks to economy as it leaves rates unchanged
- Bigger stimulus developing in China:
- Central banks rethinking direction of their monetary policies:
- Major central banks' easing push slows to a trickle in April
- Brazil central bank hikes rates to near 20-year high, leaves next steps open
- Bank of England set to cut rates amid worries about Trump tariff fallout
- BOJ split over how US policies impact rate hikes, March minutes show
- Eurozone minions threaten tariffs on U.S. goods:
- Wall Street closes out choppy trading session by snapping a two-day losing streak
- Thursday, 8 May 2025
-
- Signs and portents for the U.S. economy:
- Britain set to strike first deal to cut Trump tariffs
- Trump says China wants to make a trade deal, is open to lowering tariffs if talks go well
- Near-record US container import streak expected to snap in May due to tariffs
- Oil prices steady after dropping as economic uncertainty, supply concerns weigh
- OPEC April oil output edges lower despite plans for hike, survey finds
- U.S. exports of natural gas liquids touch record high in April
- Higher interest rates to delay U.S. residential market recovery, CRH CEO says
- Bigger trouble, stimulus developing in China:
- Trade war set to slash China's steel exports, aggravating oversupply at home
- China exempts some US imports from tariffs
- BOE minions cut UK interest rates:
- Bigger trouble developing in Japan:
- ECB minions still excited to deliver more interest rate cuts to Eurozone:
- Wall Street ends higher after Trump says 'go out and buy stock now'
- Friday, 9 May 2025
-
- Signs and portents for the U.S. economy:
- Oil prices post weekly gains on US-China trade talk optimism
- Ahead of key China talks, Trump says 80% tariff 'seems right'
- Exclusive: India offers to slash tariff gap by two-thirds in dash to seal trade pact with Trump
- Fed minions say they don't really know what's going on while confidently asserting the US job market is doing great and that tariffs will slow the economy and cause inflation:
- Fed officials, citing uncertainty, reiterate patient policy stance
- Fed's Kugler says US labor market stable, close to maximum employment
- Fed's Barr: tariffs to boost inflation, slow growth later this year
- Fed's independent structure has proved its worth, Waller says
- Ex Fed's Warsh highlights a path to lower rates, takes a fresh dig at the Fed
- Bigger US trade deal developing in China?
- Inside China's decision to come to the table on Trump tariffs
- Fear Of Economic Collapse Forced China To Negotiate With Trump, Quietly Reach Out First: Reuters Report
- China’s latest stimulus measures fail to impress as investors focus on U.S. trade talks
- China's April soybean imports hit decade-low as customs delays disrupt trade
- China's exports top forecasts helped by global rush to beat tariffs
- U.S. stocks finish slightly lower ahead of possible weekend China trade deal
The CME Group's FedWatch Tool projects the Fed will refuse to resume cutting the Federal Funds Rate until the conclusion of its 30 July (2025-Q2) meeting. The FedWatch Tool also forecasts the Fed will reduce U.S. interest rates just twice before the end of 2025, anticipating 0.25% cuts in the Federal Funds Rate on 17 September (2025-Q3) and 10 December (2025-Q4).
The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow tool boosted its projection of real GDP growth in the U.S. during the current quarter of 2025-Q2 from +1.1% to +2.3%. This estimate is near the upper end of the so-called "Blue Chip consensus" range, where the overall average expected real GDP growth rate for the quarter is about 0.8%.
Image credit: Microsoft Copilot Designer. Prompt: "An editorial cartoon of a Wall Street bull and bear who are watching U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators".
Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:
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