Luke Swaney @LukeSwaney

The #Dodgers paid $50 million to Japanese baseball team #Nippon for just the right to sign pitcher Yamamoto (approx. A's 2023 payroll). The combined contracts received this offseason by Ohtani and Yamamoto is ~$1 billion, more than the last 14 years of A's payroll combined.

A pigeon that was detained for 8 months on suspicion of espionage has been released. Turns out it was an open-water racing bird from Taiwan that had flown to Mumbai, not a Chinese spy bird, as Indian authorities suspected. No details have been released on interrogation tactics.

According to the FEC #RonDeSantis spent $6,579 per vote in Iowa's #Republican caucuses, only to come in second behind #DonaldTrump. He racked up over $154 million in expenses last year trying to close the gap. Meanwhile, #Trump spend $9,327 per vote. #seemsreasonabletome #eyeroll

The Fed has an operating loss of $114.3 billion in 2023, its largest ever. The deficit is a result of its campaign to aggressively support the economy in 2020 and 2021 and then jack up interest rates to tame high inflation. I wish I could print more money down $114 billion.

Pour some eggnog out for natural Christmas trees. American Christmas Tree Association reports, 77% of Americans will choose an artificial one this year. In 2023, the US will import nearly 450 million fake trees up from 190M a decade ago. Who knew there was an Xmas Tree Assoc.?

~$688 billion: amount that Americans failed to pay in taxes on their 2021 returns—the largest gap ever. The #IRS said it will increase audits and enforcement measures. $542 billion is from underreported income; the rest is people who didn’t file returns or never paid their bills.

In honor of the #ThursdayNightFootball matchup of #Broncos & #Chiefs, here are a few things that didn't exist the last time Broncos beat the Chiefs: Disney+ Fortnite GOT Season 6 iPhone 7 Stranger Things Tik Tok White Claw Hello by Adele This list is only going to grow.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, including the desire to ban books. Texas led the US in attempts to restrict access to books in 2022 by a wide margin. Last year, Texas made 93 attempts to ban 2,349 individual titles. Combined, Vermont and Hawaii made five attempts. #notsurprised

$26m: #AMC’s new record for single-day ticket sales, brought about by — Who else? — #TaylorSwift, less than three hours after tickets for her #ErasTour concert film went on sale. The previous record holder was Spider-Man: No Way Home, earning $16.9m. Just another day for Tay Tay.

There were 110,000+ new US sign-ups for #MLS' #AppleTV streaming service on July 21 when #LionelMessi made his North American debut with #InterMiamiCF. There were 6,143 the prior day. Messi is worth every penny Inter Miami is paying him. #saywhat

#France spent $216 million destroying 80 million gallons of surplus #wine, enough to fill more than 100 Olympic-sized pools. Higher production costs and shrinking demand have made it impossible for French wineries to sell wine for a profit. There has to be a better solution. #why

The average mortgage rate rose to 7.09% this week, the highest level in more than 20 years according the #FreddieMac. The Fed has also signaled it likely isn't done raising rates after the latest rate hike. Can someone please take me back to the days of sub 3% rates!

Americans purchased 43.7 million servings of grocery store sushi last year. #Kroger has made sushi a central component in its strategy to expand consumer's grocery shopping list. I would have never guessed that grocery store sushi would be part of anyone's winning strategy.

Italian politicians have debated building a suspension bridge between Sicily and mainland Italy for over 160 years. But, Parliament has approved a plan and it is expected to be ready in the early 2030s and 1.5x the length of the longest suspension bridge in the world. #efficiency

#TaylorSwift’s #Erastour is propping up the economy, and making the Earth move. Dancing fans at a Seattle show created seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3-magnitude earthquake. #Swifties went even harder than the Seahawks fans that caused the legendary 2011 “Beast Quake.”

44% of senior level work-from-home employees said they were likely to quit their jobs if they were called back to the office every day, and were willing to trade over 20% of their salary to work their preferred days at home (#McKinsey research). My bosses have now been warned.

New data released shows you need to make more than $650,000 a year to rank among the wealthiest 1% of US households. Some states it is significantly higher. In Connecticut you need to earn $953k annually before taxes to be counted in the 1%. I guess I have some more work to do.

#WSJ poll listed 54% as the probability of a recession in the next 12 months, down from 61% in the last two prior surveys. The forecasters still expect GDP to eventually contract, but later, and by less, than previously.... So you're saying there's still a chance. #fingerscrossed

$6.5m - Gone in 30 Seconds. #CBS, which will broadcast #SuperBowlLVIII in February 2024, has already sold ~70% of the event’s ad inventory. The average price is $6.5m per 30 seconds or over $216k per second. At that rate everyone is playing on repeat don't want no #minuteman

#EnhancedGames, a drug-test-free sporting event that aims to reward a juiced up class of athletes, has announced plans to host their first event in 2024 with five categories: track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, and combat sports. #illwatchit #whatcouldgowrong