The Daily Valet. - 9/3/20, Thursday

✔️ U.S. Debt to Exceed Size of the Economy

Thursday, September 3rd Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Suddenly I don’t feel so bad for my credit card debt.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today's edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

U.S. Debt to Exceed Size of the Economy

Coronavirus spending, shrinking GDP and tax-revenue decline are to blame

For the first time since World War II, the American government’s debt will roughly equal the size of the entire American economy by the end of this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

The reports concluded that our debt is projected to be larger than the gross domestic product by next year. According to the Wall Street Journal, that would put the U.S. in the company of a handful of nations with debt loads that exceed their economies, including Japan, Italy and Greece.

The reason for such a rapid change? Experts point to the surge in new spending that the government authorized as it tried to control the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government’s annual budget deficit (projected to widen to $3.3 trillion by the end of this fiscal year) is more than triple its level in 2019, reports the Washington Post. The deficit was already on track to be elevated because of recent tax cuts and spending increases, but the government’s response to the pandemic expanded that gap dramatically.

The last time the U.S. debt level exceeded economic output was in 1946, after years of financing military operations to help end the second World War.

But unlike in the '40s, America faces several structural challenges that make digging out of such a hole difficult—an aging population, rising health care costs and compounding interest to name just a few.

↦ FYI: The debt was 79% the size of the economy at the end of 2019 and 35% of GDP in 2007, before the start of the previous recession.

Is a Vaccine Coming Soon?

CDC asks states to prepare for distribution

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November, reports the New York Times.

The timeline raised concern among public health experts about an “October surprise”—a vaccine approval driven by political considerations ahead of a presidential election, rather than science.

According to the Associated Press, the CDC also sent three planning documents to some health departments that included possible timelines for when vaccines would be available. The documents are to be used to develop plans for early vaccination when the supply might be constrained, according to one of the documents, which outlined a scenario in which a vaccine could be available as soon as the end of October.

Of course, the government has been aiming to have a vaccine ready by early 2021, establishing an plan called “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate the process of developing, manufacturing and distributing an effective treatment. The process usually takes several years.

↦ Meanwhile: Bloomberg reports that the virus is flaring in new hot spots as Americans let their guard down.

Special Promotion

Looking for a simple way to improve your home life? Try these natural pick-me-ups.

News Radio, Remixed Just for You

Google’s personalized audio news feature, Your News Update, comes to Google Podcasts

A lot of us these days listen to an ever-changing computer-generated song playlist that feels entirely personal. Now, Google wants to create a similar type of bespoke audio experience—not with music, but with news (that you don't get from your favorite newsletter).

The company is adding some new features to its existing news aggregation service called Your News Update, which gathers news clips from different outlets and plays them in one continuous audio feed, reports WIRED. Think of it like Feedly or Flipboard, but for spoken stories pulled from your preferred news sources.

According to Tech Crunch, this personalization takes into account data you’ve explicitly provided Google—like the topics, people and locations you’ve said you’re interested in following. In addition, it allows Google to use the data the company has gleaned from your use of other Google products to further personalize the news to your own interests.

That is, unless you’ve gone to your account settings page to turn off personalization. It's a cool idea, for sure. But I wonder if this will only continue to exasperate our echo chamber media problem—directing someone toward left or right-leaning sources, based on their past behavior.

WFH Saved Us Some Serious Money

How much, you ask? Over $750,000,000 per day

The pandemic lockdown has killed the work commute. And as the number of miles people travel every day has collapsed, commuters have saved themselves both time and money, reports CNN.

But it's clear that most of us saved more money than time. Because research from freelancing platform Upwork recently found that workers who once commuted by car but now work from home are saving a total of $758 million per day.

Over the months since the pandemic hit the US, that figure amounts to a cumulative $90 billion. That's billion with a B.

The savings comprise gas, car maintenance and repairs, as well as the costs that driving imposes on society, such as congestion and polluting, said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork. Raise your hand if you're as shocked as I was by those numbers.

↦ Do the Math: The Department of Transportation estimates that every hour of commuting by car costs Americans $12.50.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

This Chris Hemsworth workout

Saving American denim

David Blaine’s Ascension

Special Promotion

Bring the Outside In

A simple way to improve your (or someone else’s) home life

We’re all being asked to do our part and stay home more these days. One way to instantly improve your surroundings is to bring a little of the outside indoors. UrbanStems, the tastemaker's choice for flowers, recently launched dried bouquets that have a uniquely modern, textured style. The artfully dried stems are also easy to care for (no water) and a great value, considering that they'll be able to stick around for months to come.

We like the simplicity of the feather-like pampas grass—a hardy South American plant native to Brazil, Argentina and Chile—which comes in an elegant mouth-blown glass vase. It makes a statement without being loud. But if you want something a bit more fanciful, there's the monochromatic Logan bouquet, which features preserved ferns, sea lavender, dried oats and strawflower. Either would look sharp as a table centerpiece or accenting a fireplace mantle or nightstand.