A few interesting charts that got me wondering about cause and effect.
The first is a marked decline in drug overdose deaths. I wonder if all the attention to and regulation around the likes of Oxycontin have begun making a dent.
Source: CDC
Interesting to also see violent crime from Realtimecrimeindex.com down from those pandemic highs. It made me wonder if real cause was frustration from being stuck in their homes.
Next, it was nice to see that groceries are back to being as affordable as they were pre-pandemic. Inflation has gone down and interest rates are about to come down as well.
Perhaps that’s the driver of increased optimism about business growth from small business owners?
Finally, and since everyone here knows I love a good renewable energy investment chart, I’ve shared posts in the past about Texas’ impressive investments in renewable energy capacity – a result of their deregulated energy responding quickest to the exponential decreases in costs.
This chart, however, was wild. Over the next 18 months, Texas is going to invest in more renewable energy capacity than the next 10 states combined.
Fascinating.
