Tesla’s Poor Performance and Mississippi’s Money Management
Behind The NumbersApril 12, 2024 | 2 min read
- Sliding the Envelope – Federal lobbying spending toppled $4.2 billion in 2023, led by pharmaceutical and health product lobbying at $376.6 million and electronics manufacturing and equipment lobbying at $238.4 million (source: Open Secrets).
- Poor Performance – Tesla recorded the *S&P 500’s biggest loss during Q1 2024, with shares down 29%. This marks Tesla’s worst quarterly performance since Q4 2022 (source: CNBC).
- Surging Stocks – The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 47.29 points in March 2024, finishing the month out at 39,807.37. The first quarter of 2024 recorded a 5.6% surge, the strongest first quarter performance since 2021, which had a 7.4% gain (source: CNBC).
- Money Management – At the end of 2023, Mississippi had the least debt per capita, reporting $43,132 of debt per resident. West Virginia was close behind at $43,808 of debt per resident (source: Yahoo Finance).
- Pay Up – The average cost of professional tax help for individual income tax returns was $248 in 2023, marking a 16% jump in prices from 2021 (source: Kiplinger).
- Just Ship It – U.S. imports of goods increased $4.7 billion to $268.1 billion in February 2024. Major categories supporting this uptick include a rise in imports of cell phones and other household goods of $1.4 billion, food and beverage imports increasing by $1.3 billion, and automotive vehicle and part imports jumping $1.1 billion (source: Bureau of Economic Analysis).
- Wage Warfare – In 2023, women were paid 21.8% less than men on average. The wage gap decreased from 22.9% in 2022 and 22.1% in 2021 (source: Economic Policy Institute).
- Uncertain Employment – U.S. employers cut over 90,000 jobs in March 2024, the highest month of layoffs since January 2023. Over 36,000 of the eliminated positions were from government agencies, with 24,000 U.S. Army layoffs and 10,000 layoffs in Veteran Affairs (source: Forbes).
- Music to My Ears – Rock, alternative, and indie music was the most popular digital audio genre in the United States during 2023, with 39% of individuals ranking the genre as their top pick. The country genre was close behind at 38% (source: Statista).
- Budding Billionaire – Taylor Swift became the first musician to become a billionaire solely off of earnings from music and performance in March 2024 (source: Today).
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