2021 Chugging-Along

If we all thought The Great Recession dunked the economy, judging by a twice-as-big new American Relief Plan any rebound from a great decline looks uneven and highly volatile. 

Who owns stocks in America? From the uncertainly over the pandemic to soaring GameStop stock prices, the past year has brought ups and downs to the stock market. But who do those ups and downs affect? Dive into the info on assets and learn the income brackets of stock investors, plus how investment opportunities changed in the ’80s and ’90s.  More Americans are invested in the stock market than ever. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that 53% of US families owned some form of publicly traded stock in 2019, up from 32% in 1989. Indirect stock investments grew from 1989 to 2019, partly thanks to innovations like the development of exchange-traded funds in 1993 and Roth IRAs in 1997.   Families with a head of household aged 45 to 54 had the highest stock ownership rate. However, the value of owned stock is higher for older Americans whose investments have had more time to accumulate value. Head of households 65 or older held 43% of the total dollar value of stock in 2019, with median investments ranging from $84,000 to $109,000. In 2019, only 15% percent of families in the bottom 20% of income earners held stock, while 92% of families in the top 10% of income earners did. How does stock ownership vary by race? Learn that and much more here.  The 2020 GDP decline While a growing number of Americans are investing in the stock market, they're also saving more. In fact, they saved more of their disposable income in 2020 than any year since 1945. This is just one finding in a new report on US gross domestic product (GDP) at USAFacts. Read it here and learn about how a drop in consumption drove a decline in GDP while personal saving rose.  GDP decreased 3.5% in 2020, the greatest decrease since 1946. Inflation-adjusted GDP grew 2.1% on average over the past 20 years, but it fell from $21.7 trillion in 2019 to $20.9 trillion in 2020.    The federal government spent $6.6 trillion in the fiscal year between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020, more than $2 trillion above what it spent the year prior. Over $500 billion went to supporting businesses during the pandemic, while $600 billion was in cash aid like unemployment insurance and stimulus checks. There’s an apparent uptick in saving when looking at the combined income and spending of all Americans. However, government data doesn’t yet provide insight into how saving differed for people in various income groups.  See more here, including charts mapping the saving rate from the Great Depression to the Great Recession to 2020, and every year in between.    Women's History Month The current Congress holds the record for the number of women serving in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Follow USAFacts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram throughout Women’s History Month for more metrics on how women are changing America. And finally... USAFacts Chief Product Officer Richard Coffin will be the opening keynote for the Stanford Open Datathon. The Stanford Open Datathon runs April 9–11 and is a perfect chance for students interested in meaningful data journalism, data policy, or tools for open data at their school to show off their creativity and compete for thousands of dollars. Are you interested, or would the Open Datathon be perfect for the young data scientist in your life? Make sure to apply here by March 15.