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Saudi Arabia's oil price problem
In the first quarter of 2025, Saudi Arabia reported a budget deficit of $15.7 billion—the highest figure since 2021. A big part of the reason is that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is investing substantial financial resources in Vision 2030, a sweeping, decade-old development initiative designed to diversify the nation’s economy away from hydrocarbons.
However, with slumping oil prices and even higher spending, Saudi Arabia may have to scale back some of its more ambitious investment plans. In April, reports surfaced that the kingdom was drastically cutting its plans for Neom—a $1.5 trillion infrastructure project aimed at constructing a utopian megacity in the desert.
Here’s a look at how global oil prices have stacked up against Saudi Arabia’s fiscal breakeven price—the level needed to balance the state budget—since 2008.
Elon Musk's political donations 2020-2024
The Graphic Truth: Elon Musk's political donations
During his public spat with Trump on social media, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed credit for the Republicans’ electoral victories last year, writing, “without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”
While Musk has indicated that he will pare down his political spending, he certainly possesses the financial power to tip the scales in campaign financing – he was the GOP’s largest donor last year. Here’s a look at where Musk, who publicly converted from Democrat to Republican ahead of the 2024 election, has put his money in the last two electoral cycles.
The Graphic Truth: The foreigners who hold US debt
The US is the world’s biggest debtor, with more than $35 trillion of securities outstanding.
About a quarter of that is held by foreign investors, a detail which has drawn considerable attention since Donald Trump began walloping the world with tariffs to rebalance US trade ties and military alliances. That’s because if countries upset – or merely uneasy – about Trump’s policies sell those securities in response, the debt servicing costs for the US rise. This is no small matter on $35 trillion worth of paper.
In fact, one widely held explanation for Trump’s abrupt suspension of the “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 9 was that wary bond investors had begun to sell US Treasuries: In the week of April 11, yields on 10-year US treasuries saw their biggest leap in a quarter of a century, a sign that creditors were dropping US sovereign debt fast.
Could countries weaponize US debt more directly? China, Trump’s biggest trade war target, is the second largest foreign US creditor, officially holding more than $750 billion.
A selloff could be devastating. But analysts say it would be hard to find enough buyers for a sale that is both swift and large enough to catch the US off guard.
And even if it were possible, a seller would risk their own financial security as well global economic health by kneecapping the US. In other words: It would be, in financial terms, the nuclear option.
The graphic above looks at which countries hold the most US sovereign debt. Note that the last official data precede “Liberation Day” and that they depend on official reporting. Some countries may hold more than what is listed here via third parties.
The Graphic Truth: Which US states export the most to China?
The trade war between the US and China is already scorching hot. As of this writing, the US has slapped tariffs of 145% on all Chinese goods, while Beijing has hit the US with a 125% levy of its own.
Much attention has focused on the tariff impact on Chinese exporters and US consumers – fair enough, given that China is the second largest source of US imports.
But US industries also sold more than $140 billion worth of goods to China last year – with agricultural goods (soy beans especially), electronic equipment, and oil and gas among the top exports.
Here’s a look at the ten US states that exported the most to China, along with estimates of how many jobs were supported by that commerce.
Graphic Truth: Where the US government gets its revenue
The US government currently raises about $5 trillion a year in revenue. That plus another $2 trillion in debt are what make up the nearly $7 trillion that Uncle Sam spends annually.
But where does that revenue actually come from? Here’s a look at the breakdown.
Bear in mind, as you look at this, that incoming US president Donald Trump has suggested he wants to replace the income tax with his new tariffs. Would that be possible?
It’s true that until the income tax was implemented in the early 20th century, tariffs provided the lion’s share of US government revenue. But that was a time before social security, medicare, or a modern military when the government spent barely $500,000 a year.
With Trump’s tariffs expected to raise, at best, about $300 billion per year, using them to replace income taxes would entail an unfathomably radical shrinking of the US federal government.
Graphic Truth: Americans' trust in courts plummets
American trust in its judicial system has fallen dramatically, plummeting away from other wealthy nations. New Gallup data shows American confidence in courts hitting a record low of 35% in 2024, placing it far behind the median of OECD countries where majority trust remains intact. The 20-point gap between US and OECD median trust levels in 2024 marks the widest divide since tracking began in 2006.
The 24-percentage-point decline over four years represents one of the steepest drops globally, rivaling decreases seen in countries experiencing political upheaval like Myanmar and Venezuela. This places the United States in concerning company, especially since dramatic institutional trust declines typically coincide with significant political instability or civil unrest.
The erosion of confidence spans political lines, though following different patterns. Among those disapproving of current leadership, trust fell from 46% to 29% since 2021, possibly because of Donald Trump supporters disagreements with the federal indictments brought against him for hush money, racketeering, and Jan. 6. Even more striking, those approving of leadership maintained steady confidence around 62% until 2024, when it dropped sharply to 44%, possibly reflecting dissatisfaction with the immunity Supreme Court ruling which favored Trump.
Graphic Truth: Thanksgiving got cheaper!
Although high grocery bills may have contributed to the Democrats’ losses in the US election on Nov. 5, Americans can be grateful that the cost of their upcoming Thanksgiving dinner is, in fact, declining. Prices for the holiday’s traditional staples have fallen for a second consecutive year.
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people is projected to be $58.08 in 2024. That’s 5% lower than last year’s bill of $61.17 and down from a record high of $64.05 in 2022. Still, prices remain 19% higher they were in 2019, on the eve of the pandemic.
Key contributors to this year’s price drop include significant reductions in the costs of sweet potatoes (down 26.2%) and turkey (down 5.6%) after previous spikes. Some items like dinner rolls and fresh cranberries have seen price increases, as have the costs of eggs and chicken, owing to recent outbreaks of bird flu.
The drop in turkey prices is due in part to a decline in demand, as Americans increasingly choose other proteins to be the centerpiece of their meal. As a result, farmers raised only 205 million of the birds in 2024, down 6% from 2023, marking the lowest level since 1985.
Graphic Truth: America's podcast boom
Is 2024 the Podcast Election? For the first time, US presidential candidates are sitting for lengthy interviews on popular podcasts, while doing fewer traditional spots with mainstream media.
Donald Trump, for example, has appeared on pods hosted by, among others, controversial gaming streamer Adin Ross, YouTube influencer Logan Paul, pro-wrestler The Undertaker, comedian and actor Theo Von, computer scientist Lex Fridman and, of course, Joe Rogan, who boasts the largest podcast audience in America.
Those all cater chiefly to young men – no accident given Trump’s focus on that demographic in an election increasingly shaped by notions of gender.
Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has appeared on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy,” the top women-focused podcast, as well as “Club Shay Shay,” hosted by pro Football hall of famer Shannon Sharpe; “All the Smoke,” hosted by two former NBA champs; and “The Howard Stern Show.”
Whether the vice president too will appear on Rogan is unclear. As of Tuesday, Rogan said she hadn’t met his terms, a striking illustration of the podcaster’s power: Most traditional media would leap to accommodate a sitting VP.
Why the pod? One answer is: In a polarized environment where the credibility of traditional media has cratered, podcasters reach large subcultures of American voters who see them as authentic and trustworthy. And the conversational podcast setup is generally friendlier to candidates than traditional media interviews.
Another answer is: Because lots of people listen to podcasts now. Here’s a graphic showing the staggering growth in podcast listenership since the medium first arose in the mid-2000s, and a breakdown of listenership in 2024 alone.
How will the podcast shape the election? That remains to be heard, as it were – but we, like nearly half of America these days, are listening more closely than ever.