Inequality in the U.S. – 2024

Household net worth increased by $4.8 trillion in the third quarter of 2024, primarily driven by gains on corporate equity assets. The net worth of households and nonprofit organizations reached $168.8 trillion in the third quarter.

In the U.S., the wealthiest half of households own about 97.5% of national wealth; the bottom half holds just 2.5%.

The top 10% (15 million households) hold 60% of the nation’s wealth ($101.3 trillion).
The top 1% (1.5 million persons) hold 32.1% of the national wealth ($54.2 trillion).
The bottom 50% (66,646,494 households) hold 2.5% ($4.2 trillion) of the national wealth.
By elimination, those who are below the top 10% but above the bottom 50% (the middle class) hold 5.4% ($9.1 trillion) of the national wealth.

What is the current racial wealth gap?

Black families owned about 23 cents for every $1 of white family wealth, on average.
Hispanic families owned about 19 cents for every $1 of white family wealth, on average.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Historical Fiscal Deficits

As shown, fiscal deficits started to increase during the Vietnam War, and they haven’t stopped.

National Bankruptcies – Great Powers

Spain: 1557, 1560, 1575, and 1596, during the reign of Philip II (1556-1598).

France: 1797 – the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon.

Great Britain: 1934 (defaulted on its World War I debt to the USA). In the wake of World War II, though technically not bankrupt, Britain accumulated a huge national debt, mostly to the USA. The war significantly depleted Britain’s industrial capacity and overseas financial reserves. That negatively impacted its ability to export goods and pay for imports. To reduce financial burdens, the Labor government accelerated the process of decolonization. That led to its withdrawal from Palestine (with all its convulsions, still ongoing), and the independence of India (which split into India and Pakistan).

Russia: On February 8, 1918, the Soviet government canceled all Russian government debt, including debts from the Russian Empire and the Russian Provisional Government. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, the Russian government faced economic collapse. Its GDP contracted by an estimated 40% between 1991 and 1998. In response, the Russian government printed large amounts of money, imposed price controls on most goods and heavy new taxes, and drastically cut government subsidies and funding to state welfare spending. In all cases war, whether hot or cold, was the cause of these actual or de facto bankruptcies.

History of the Gulf of Mexico

The Spanish discoverer of the Gulf was Sebastián de Ocampo, who circumnavigated the island of Cuba in 1508. The Gulf was unnamed until the early 1540s and was considered part of the Atlantic Ocean. The earliest maps referred to the Gulf as Seno Mejicano or Golfo de la Nueva España, but it was named Golfo Mexicano on the 1569 Mercator map.

At that time Spain ruled all the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. But times have changed. Today the U.S. is the overwhelming hegemon in the region, and as such it has the power to do as it wishes, including renaming the Gulf to its liking.

Amerigo Vespucci, a 16^th century Italian merchant and explorer, became a naturalized citizen of Spain in 1505. In 1499 he joined an expedition led by Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda that reached the northeastern coast of South America and coastal Brazil. He made extensive observations about the indigenous tribes and the mouth of the Amazon River, which he thought was the Ganges River of India. In 1501, on another voyage, Vespucci sailed along the Brazilian and Argentinian coasts to present-day Rio de Janeiro and the La Plata River. He finally realized that he was not in India or on an undiscovered island but on a separate continent across the Atlantic Ocean, and dubbed the land Mundus Novus, or New World.

In 1507 German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller drew a map of the new continent and named it “Americus” in Vespucci’s honor. This marked the first usage of the name “America.”

The first permanent English colony in America was established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, 100 years after Waldseemüller’s map and nine years after the death of King Philip II of Spain on September 13, 1598.

Death Valley Canal System

Part 1 would see a sea level canal from the Pacific Ocean to Death Valley, wide and deep enough to simultaneously allow two supertankers to traverse it going in opposite directions. Part 2 would feature a secondary canal from Death Valley to the Salton Sea, on to Laguna Salada in Mexico, and from there to the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez. The Salton Sea and Laguna Salada areas would include locks which would regulate water flow from Death Valley and to the Gulf of Calfornia to take advantage of the tide differential between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf. Part 2 would create (a) a one-way flow through Death Valley to prevent, or at least highly reduce, accumulated salination and silt; and (b) to regulate and reduce salination in the Salton Sea and the Laguna Salada (currently dry). All three (Death Valley, the Salton Sea and the Laguna Salada) could be used to produce hydrogen from electrolysis of seawater using solar energy for domestic use and for export. Not only would this eventually replace the need of fossil fuels to generate electricity, it would help the U.S. (and Mexico) improve their trade volume.

Tides – California vs. Colorado River Delta

Question:

Are the tides equal in California and Colorado River delta?

Answer:

No, the tides are not equal in California and the Colorado River delta; the Colorado River delta experiences significantly larger tidal ranges compared to most of California’s coastline due to the unique geography of the Gulf of California where it empties, meaning the tides are much higher and lower in the delta region than in most of California.

Key points:

Large tidal range in the delta:

The Colorado River delta, located in the Gulf of California, experiences large tidal fluctuations because of the shape of the gulf, resulting in much higher high tides and lower low tides compared to most of California.