Five Numbers Worth Knowing for Their Own Sake — Jun 3, 2026
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Not every number that moves you has to move a market. Today's five are here because they're interesting first and useful second — a coin that costs four cents to mint, a country's worth of electricity vanishing into AI, and the half of all spending now done by one-tenth of us.
Jun 3, 2026
The Top 10% of U.S. Earners Now Account for Roughly Half of All Consumer Spending — About 49%, a Record in Data Going Back to 1989 — Which Means One-Tenth of the Country Is Quietly Carrying the Other Nine-Tenths
Moody's Analytics pegs the share of U.S. consumer spending done by the highest-earning 10% of households at roughly 49% — the most lopsided reading since the series began in 1989, up from about 36% in the 1990s. The engine is the wealth effect: this group owns most of the stocks and the home equity, and an AI-driven market at record highs has them feeling richer than ever, while everyone else's spending has barely outrun inflation. It's a strange base for a $30 trillion economy — when one-tenth of households are doing the heavy lifting, the whole thing leans on how that tenth happens to feel.
Source: Moody's Analytics (Mark Zandi) / Federal Reserve
Americans Legally Bet a Record $166.9 Billion on Sports in 2025 — Up 11% in a Single Year — and the Sportsbooks Kept Nearly $17 Billion of It, More Than the Entire U.S. Box Office Took In All Year
The American Gaming Association's annual tally put legal U.S. sports wagers at $166.9 billion in 2025, an 11% jump and yet another all-time high seven years after the Supreme Court opened the door. Sportsbooks held onto a record $16.96 billion of that — comfortably more than Hollywood's entire domestic box office — even as a new crop of prediction markets like Kalshi began skimming bets the states can't tax. And with the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final filling screens this month, the meter is still very much running.
Source: American Gaming Association — 2025 Commercial Gaming Revenue / ESPN
America's Data Centers Now Draw About as Much Electricity as the Entire Nation of Pakistan — Roughly 4.4% of the U.S. Grid — While the Tech Giants Spend More Than $400 Billion a Year Building Even More
U.S. data centers pulled roughly 180 terawatt-hours of power in 2024 by the IEA's math — about 4.4% of all American electricity, or close to what Pakistan's 240 million people use in a year. The AI boom is pouring on fuel: the five largest tech companies spent north of $400 billion on data centers in 2025 and are on pace to lift that by another 75% this year. The trouble is who covers the new grid — in Virginia, where data centers already eat nearly 40% of the state's power, the bill is starting to show up on ordinary electric statements.
Source: International Energy Agency / Pew Research Center
Americans Paid a Record $253 Billion in Credit-Card Interest and Fees in 2025 — Up Roughly 50% in Three Years — as Average APRs Stayed Pinned Above 21% and the Bottom of the K Borrowed Just to Keep Up
While the top tenth was setting spending records, much of the rest of the country was financing the basics — U.S. cardholders handed over about $253 billion in interest and fees last year, per WalletHub, well clear of the decade's $162 billion average. With APRs stuck north of 21%, a carried balance is now one of the most expensive debts a household can hold. It's the other half of the K-shaped story: one group spending its market gains, the other paying the card company for groceries.
Source: WalletHub analysis of Federal Reserve & FFIEC data
On a Lighter Note: It Cost the U.S. Mint 3.69 Cents to Make a One-Cent Coin — So the Government Struck Its Last Circulating Penny in November and Walked Away From an $85 Million-a-Year Loss
After a 232-year run, the Mint hammered out the final circulating penny in Philadelphia last November, retiring a coin that cost nearly four cents apiece to produce and lost the Treasury about $85 million in 2024 alone. Don't hold a funeral, though — some 300 billion pennies are still floating around in jars and couch cushions, they remain legal tender, and registers are simply rounding cash sales to the nearest nickel. A penny saved, it turns out, was costing the government three.
Source: U.S. Mint / U.S. Department of the Treasury