Good morning. Congrats to the Kansas City Chiefs, who beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in OT last night to win the Super Bowl.

In today’s edition:

• 📈 America’s national debt continues to climb
• 🤢 Super Sick Monday is here
• 🗼 The case of the missing radio tower

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.85-minute read.

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

“A good character is the best tombstone. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

–Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

If America’s finances were an Alfred Hitchcock movie, they would be Vertigo – because Uncle Sam is slowly losing the ability to balance his checkbook.

The US is on pace to add nearly $19 trillion to its national debt over the next decade, with higher interest payments set to account for a historic share of government spending, per a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Background: The US government has spent more money than it takes in each year since 2001, including record-setting deficit levels in 2020 ($3.1 trillion) and 2021 ($2.8 trillion). To cover this shortfall, the government borrows money by Venmo-requesting their parents selling Treasury bonds to investors around the world, who expect the US to pay them back with interest.

• These back payments make up the national debt, which currently sits at $34.2 trillion – or ~125% of America’s annual GDP.
• At a projected $1+ trillion/year moving forward, total interest payments on this debt will represent an estimated 3.6% of US GDP.

Over the long term, consistent US deficits lead to higher interest costs on the national debt. Starting in 2025, net interest costs on the national debt will be larger as a share of the US economy than any time since US records began in 1940, per the CBO.

And that’s not all. By 2053, interest payments are projected to reach $5.4 trillion/year – which would make it the single largest line item in the federal budget (surpassing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc).

👀 Looking ahead… America's rising interest payments are in part due to the Federal Reserve's recent series of interest rate hikes, which resulted in decades-high borrowing costs. The CBO expects the Fed will begin to lower interest rates later this year, but rates in the following years will be "generally higher" than it previously expected.

📊 Flash poll (long-form): In your opinion, how should the US government deal with its rising national debt?

• Click here to leave a response.

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🇷🇺🇺🇦 Russia is using SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet terminals, per Ukrainian officials. Countries around the world, including the US, have funded the delivery of 20,000+ Starlink terminals to Ukrainian troops, allowing them to communicate via secure internet chat apps rather than cell or radio signals which are easier to intercept. On Sunday, Ukrainian intelligence said it intercepted an exchange between two Russian soldiers discussing the set up of Starlink terminals in occupied regions of Ukraine. SpaceX said it has never done business with Russia’s government or military, and will deactivate any confirmed terminals.

🇵🇰 Pakistan held parliamentary elections late last week. Independent candidates allied with the political party of former PM Imran Khan – who’s currently serving a ten-year prison term – won 93 of the 265 seats, short of the 170 needed for a majority. However, party leaders claim they actually won 154 parliamentary elections, but lost dozens of seats to election fraud when mobile phones services were shut off on election day in response to a pair of bombings that had occurred the prior day. Party officials also announced their intention to form Pakistan’s next government.

🇲🇲 Myanmar is requiring military service for all young men and women. Myanmar’s military seized control of the country’s government in a coup in early 2021, but has lost a series of battles against ethnic militias and anti-coup fighters in recent months. The new law requires all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve at least two years in the military, with the option to extend to five years in an ongoing state of emergency.

It’s “Super Sick Monday” – the day after the Super Bowl – and offices and Zoom meetings are about to be a little more sparse (*cue tumbleweeds blowing*). About 10% of workers in America, or 16.1 million employees, are expected to miss work today, according to a recent report from The Harris Poll and UKG Workforce Institute.

Some other data from the report:

• This year, about 6 million US employees (~4% of all workers) will risk a workplace penalty for faking sick or ghosting work (not showing up).
• About 14.5 million US employees admitted that they’ve called in sick to work when they weren’t actually sick on the Monday after the Super Bowl – including over 1 in 10 people managers (11%).

Big picture: Less people are expected to miss work this year than in 2023. An estimated 18.8 million people missed work the Monday after last year’s Super Bowl.

But, but, but: There are still some Charlie Day-style wildcards out there. About 6.4 million US employees plan to go into work late (4% of workers), another 11.2 million say they’re “not sure” whether they’ll miss work (7%), and an additional 6.4 million (4%) will decide at the last minute what to do.

🤔 Could Super Sick Monday become a holiday?... Multiple petitions and even some state lawmakers are pushing to make the Monday following the Super Bowl an official holiday – which, if it happens, would be super sick.

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💬 Quoted… “I have been in the radio business, around it all my life and then in it professionally for 26 years, and I can say I have never heard of anything like this. [But] I can say I’ve seen it all now.”

• An Alabama local radio station, WJLX in Jasper, has been forced to temporarily shut down after a thief/thieves stole its 200 ft radio tower (😳), as well as every piece of broadcasting equipment the station had been storing in a nearby building. According to station manager Brett Elmore, the recent theft was discovered when a maintenance crew arrived in the wooded area where the tower once stood and found it gone. It’s suspected the thief/thieves toppled the tower by cutting its guy wire, then dismantled it into smaller pieces and hauled those away. The small-market station had no insurance on the equipment or tower, meaning it’s now on the hook for the estimated $60,000+ it’ll take to rebuild – money the station doesn’t have, per Elmore. A GoFundMe has been created for the rebuild, however, with $6,333/$60,000 raised as of yesterday evening.

📉💔 Stat of the Day: Tesla shares have fallen 22% so far this year, making the company the third-worst performer in the S&P 500 – and a messy breakup talk may be coming for it soon as a result. The EV-maker is part of a friend group known as the “Magnificent Seven” – a group of seven stocks that largely drove the index's gains last year – and has far-and-away been its worst performer so far in 2024. For context, each of the Magnificent Seven stocks sans Tesla has seen gains this year, with Nvidia seeing the largest increase (+50%).

🤔 Did You Know?... August 24 is America’s sickest day of the year – aka when the most workers call in sick – according to an analysis of sick-leave data from 2018-2022 by Flamingo, a vacation and leave tracking software company. The second sickest day of the year? February 13, suspiciously close to the Super Bowl.

📰 Worth a Read: What Your Brain Is Doing When You’re Not Doing Anything → (Quanta Magazine)

• ☝️ The 2024 Puppy Bowl took place yesterday; Team Ruff won a nail-biting 72-69 game over Team Fluff to take home the Lombarky Trophy while Taylor Sniffed and Travis Klawce cheered on from the stands.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Moomoo

• 💰 US markets closed mixed (S&P: +0.6%; Dow: -0.1%; Nasdaq: +1.2%); the S&P closed above 5000 for the first time.
• 🛢️ Oil-and-gas rivals Diamondback Energy and Endeavor Energy Resources are reportedly finalizing a merger; their combined market cap would be north of $50 billion.
• 💵 Jeff Bezos sold nearly 12 million Amazon shares worth $2+ billion last week, per new regulatory filings; Amazon previously said Bezos could sell up to 50 million shares this year.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 👀 Watch the best (and worst) Super Bowl commercials. | 🏅Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was named this seas on’s NFL MVP. (See the other award winners)
• 🎶🕺 Sony Music Group reportedly paid $600 million to acquire 50% of the rights to Michael Jackson's entire music catalog. | 👑 Beyoncé announced a new album, Act II, during yesterday's Super Bowl; she also dropped two new songs.
• 🏌️ The Waste Management Phoenix Open temporarily halted alcohol sales and closed off entrances during the third round on Saturday due to large – and rowdy – crowds.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Hers

• 🌏🛰️ NASA successfully launched a new ~$1 billion climate satellite, called Pace, that’ll aim to survey the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere in unprecedented detail.
• 💡🐌 A team of Chinese scientists managed to slow down light by a factor of 10,000 in a new experiment that could benefit computing and optical communication.
• 🧬🤧 A team of Canadian and Danish researchers found a new type of immune cell that remembers allergies; the groundbreaking discovery could lead to new treatments for common allergies.

*From our partners: 💁‍♀️ Whether it’s depression, anxiety, sleep trouble, or burnout… Hers can help you access personalized support with doctor-trusted medications that fit your needs. No insurance or office visits required. Get a free Consultation with Hers**.

MISCELLANEOUS

• 🚫🤖 The FCC unanimously voted to ban the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls.
• 🇮🇱🇺🇳 Israel said it discovered a Hamas military compound located in tunnels underneath the headquarters of the UN’s aid agency for Palestinians in Gaza.
• 🗳️ Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced plans to run for his state's open Senate seat. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🗺️🛸 America's UFO hotspots, mapped.

Monday: National Clean Out Your Computer Day

Tuesday: New York special election to replace Rep. George Santos

Wednesday: Valentine’s Day; Ash Wednesday; Madame Web hits theaters nationwide

Thursday: Weekly unemployment claims

Friday: Jennifer Lopez drops her first album in over a decade

On Friday, we covered oral arguments before the Supreme Court in a case seeking to disqualify former President Trump from the ballot due to the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists holding public office.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, should former President Trump be disqualified from the 2024 presidential election due to insurrection?

• 👍 Yes: 55%
• 👎 No: 36%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 9%

Click here to read some of the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 7,794 votes and 452 longform responses.

The Sony World Photography Awards announced its national and regional winners last week. 

• The contest included more than 395,000 images from countries and territories around the world, with topics including nature, landscape, architecture, portraiture, and sports.

🧶 New niche dream, unlocked... The above image was taken by photographer Bibek Kunwar in a felt ball factory in Nepal; it took home a national award.  

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Ant
2. Carcer
3. Ego
4. Fug
5. Host

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Ant = Against (e.g., antagonist)
2. Carcer = Jail (incarcerated)
3. Ego = Self (egocentric)
4. Fug = Flee (fugitive)
5. Host = Enemy (hostile)

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