"Shocking Levels Of Distress": CMBS Delinquencies Unexpectedly Soar To Covid Highs

Visualizing The Stunning Global Fertility Divide A widening gap is emerging in global birth rates. This chart, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows population-weighted total fertility rates (TFR) across major world regions, based on data from the UN World Population Prospects 2024 Revision, and how they compare to the 2.1 replacement level. While Africa remains far above this threshold, most of the world, including Asia, Europe, and the Americas, has already fallen below it. This split highlights where future population growth is likely to be concentrated. Africa Stands Apart Africa’s fertility rate of 4.0 children...

The Universe Is Expanding 'Too Fast' And Nothing We Know Can Explain It Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, New ultra-precise measurements have confirmed the cosmos is expanding faster than models based on the early universe predict, while a separate study has dramatically shortened estimates of how long the universe itself will last. Astronomers have long observed a mismatch in the universe’s expansion rate depending on how it is measured. Local observations of nearby galaxies point to a faster rate, while data from the early universe, such as the cosmic microwave background, suggest a...

Billionaire Tim Draper: You Should Be Scared If You Don't Own Bitcoin Authored by Micah Zimmerman via Bitcoin Magazine, Speaking on the Nakamoto Stage, Tim Draper told attendees that bitcoin has entered the financial mainstream and that governments now roll out “the red carpet” for the industry. He said the community is “starting to feel like something is happening” as adoption grows, and he cast that shift as the early phase of a larger transition in the money system. In his view, people will move in stages: first from dollars to stablecoins,...