Today’s Big Story

So Much for the Pandemic Baby Boom

U.S. births fell last year to the lowest total since 1979, report says

The pandemic was good for making babies. Nothing like lockdowns, a lack of new shows, remote work and an apocalyptic sense of the world as we know it ending to put people in the mood … But that’s all over now. U.S. births fell last year, resuming a long national slide.

In fact, births declined in 2023 to their lowest level in more than 40 years—the drop helped plunge the U.S. fertility rate to its lowest point in nearly a century. Pretty bleak, huh? According to provisional data from the CDC released Thursday, around 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. last year, a 2% drop from the previous year. Our current fertility rate amounts to about 1.62 births per woman—that’s well below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 that would allow a generation to completely replace itself.

What’s more, the rate of American women of child-bearing age having babies is “the lowest since the center began compiling statistics,” said Brady Hamilton, an NCHS demographer and lead author of the report. According to the Associated Press, birth rates have been steadily falling for teenagers and younger women, but rising for women in their 30s and 40s—a reflection of women pursuing education and careers before trying to start families, experts say. But last year, birth rates fell for all women younger than 40, and were flat for women in their 40s.

Nicholas Mark, a University of Wisconsin researcher who studies how social policy and other factors influence health and fertility, called that development surprising and said “there’s some evidence that not just postponement is going on.” Researcers found that rates fell across almost all racial and ethnic groups.

Experts have wondered how births might be affected by the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed states to ban or restrict abortion. Experts estimate that nearly half of pregnancies are unintended, so limits to abortion access could affect the number of births. The new report indicates that the decision didn’t lead to a national increase in births, but the researchers didn’t analyze birth trends in individual states or dissect data among all demographic groups.

The Supreme Court Takes on Presidential Immunity

Oral argument on immunity hints at another Trump trial … but not soon

After nearly three hours of oral arguments on Thursday, the Supreme Court appeared ready to reject former President Donald Trump’s claims of sweeping immunity and the broad protections he has sought to shut down his federal election subversion case, but also reluctant to give special counsel Jack Smith carte blanche to pursue those charges.

Much of the hearing focused on whether there should be a distinction between official acts by Trump pursuant to his presidential duties and his private conduct. If they rule as experts now predict, it would likely send the case back to the trial court—ordering it to draw distinctions between official and private conduct. And that would delay any trial until after the November election.

The arguments about Trump’s immunity claim are over. Now the clock starts ticking. Even before the justices took their seats Thursday, the high court was facing enormous pressure—particularly from the left—over its slow pace getting to this point. Every day the court doesn’t issue a decision will play into Trump’s believed strategy of delaying. Of course, any further proceedings will take time. And if Trump prevails in the election, he could always order the Justice Department to drop the charges entirely. We’ll find out, eventually.

Do You Still Have a Local Bank?

America has lost thousands of bank branches

Last week, JPMorgan closed its historic New York branch at 45 Wall St., ending its 150-year stint on the iconic street where John Pierpont Morgan and his ilk created the building blocks for what would become America’s largest bank. Sherwood says that the departure not only exemplifies the “gradual exodus of banks from Wall Street itself—once a necessary outpost for any global financial institution worth its salt—but also the wider trend of bank branch closures in cities that once thrived on footfall.”

After decades of near-constant expansion throughout the 20th century, America has been shutting commercial bank branches during the last ~10 years, losing some 13,000 since 2012, per data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

It’s not hard to guess why banks are shutting branches. Analysts have confirmed that banks are investing more in their online platforms, where customers prefer to handle increasingly more of their banking transactions. As a result, fewer branches are needed, and banks overall are continuously trimming their physical footprints in response, pushing some of the savings to their bottom lines and reinvesting the rest in evolving technology. And the Wall Street Journal says that there are some real benefits to going full digital with an online-only bank. Of course, anyone who’s spent time trying to reason with a banking chatbot will tell you that some human interaction is still highly valued.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Baby Reindeer’ + an English Bitter Ale

Have you heard all the chatter online about Baby Reindeer? I initially passed on the Netflix series, but after it was recommended by a friend with great taste, I decided to give it a try and ended up binging the show in just 48 hours. I actually recommend spacing your viewing out a little bit more—it’s an intense and often unsettling show to take in—this is a story about a stalker, a comedian and a whole lot of trauma.

When Martha (played by Jessica Gunning) walks into a bar one day, struggling comic and part-time bartender Donny Dunn (played by creator and writer Richard Gadd) sees her as a disheveled, pathetic older woman. “I felt sorry for her,” Donny says in voice-over as he gives her a free cup of tea. This small act of kindness ignites her obsessions and puts them both on a self-destructive path. The show is a critical hit (97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and has been called “a masterpiece” that’s raw and humorous and “carefully unpacks the frailties of human emotion and mental illness.” Make sure you watch to the end for a wicked and surprising end to this twisted tale.

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