Endnotes
1 The Nilson Report, “Merchant Processing Fees in the U.S.—2018,” The Nilson Report, Issue 1155, June 2019.
2 The Nilson Report, “Merchant Processing Fees in the U.S.—2018.”
3 “Funding by Appropriation,” Department of Energy, accessed September 25, 2019, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/03/ f60/doe-fy2020-summary-table-by-appropriation.pdf.
4 “EPA’s Budget and Spending,” Environmental Protection Agency, accessed September 25, 2019, https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/ budget.
5 “List of the largest coal power stations in the United States,” Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_the_largest_coal_power_stations_in_the_United_States.
6 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, “2019 Currency Budget,” December 12, 2018, https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/files/ 2019currency.pdf.
7 “U.S. and World Population Clock,” United States Census Bureau, accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.census.gov/popclock/.
8 United States Census Bureau, “U.S. and World Population Clock.”
9 Rankings are not by profits or revenue, but by market capitalization. “The 100 largest companies in the world by market capitalization,” Statistica, last updated August 12, 2019, https://www.statista.com/ statistics/263264/top-companies-in-the-world-by-market-value/.
10 “Visa Profit Margin (Quarterly),” Y Charts, accessed September 15, 2019, https://ycharts.com/companies/V/profit_margin.
11 “Annual Report 2018,” Visa, accessed December 15, 2019, https:// s1.q4cdn.com/050606653/files/doc_financials/annual/2018/Visa-2018- Annual-Report-FINAL.pdf.
12 Sullivan, Bob, “State of Credit,” Experian, published January 11, 2018, https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/state-of-credit/.
13 Calculated using 2017 global power market and the price per watt of the the world’s largest solar array built in Qinghai Province, China. Power Technology, “Q3 2017: global power markets at a glance,” accessed December 1, 2019, https://www.power-technology.com/ comment/q3-2017-global-power-markets-glance/.
Phillips, Tom. “China builds world’s biggest solar farm in journey to become green superpower.” The Guardian. January 19, 2017. https:// www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/19/china-builds-worlds- biggest-solar-farm-in-journey-to-become-green-superpower.
14 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, “2019 Currency Budget,” Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems, accessed December 1, 2019, https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/files/ 2019currency.pdf.
15 “In The U.S. Cash Is Sticking Around,” PYMNTS, accessed January 5, 2018, https://www.pymnts.com/cash/2017/united-states-cash-usage/.
16 “Expressions Hair Design vs Schneiderman,” Justia, accessed December 20, 2019, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/ 581/15-1391/#tab-opinion-3710972.
Bibliography
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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “2019 Currency Budget.” Division of Reserve Bank Operations and Payment Systems. Accessed December 1, 2019. https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/files/ 2019currency.pdf.
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Visa. “Annual Report 2018.” Accessed December 15, 2019. https://s1.q4cdn.com/050606653/files/doc_financials/annual/2018/Visa-2018- Annual-Report-FINAL.pdf.
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Harper’s Index
2019 Currency Budget, February 23 * source: [note]https://www.federalreserve.gov/foia/files/2019currency.pdf[/note]
Operating budget, 2019: $955.8 million
Multi-cycle capital budget: $3.2 million
Proposed research and development budget, 2019: $11.8 million
Percent increase from 2018: 96.7%
World’s biggest solar farm (China), February 23 * source: [note]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/19/china-builds-worlds-biggest-solar-farm-in-journey-to-become-green-superpower[/note]
Size of the Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in Qinghai: 27 square kilometers
Building cost of the solar park: 6 billion yuan (721.3 million pounds, £)
Power production of Longyangxia: 850 Megawatts
Associated households powered: up to 200,000
Solar power production goal in China by 2020: 110 Gigawatts
Wind power goal: 210 Gigawatts
Percent increase in non-fossil fuel energy pledged by 2030: 20%
Amount of money vowed for renewable energy sources by 2020: $360+ billion
Associated jobs created: 13 million
Global power markets, February 23 * source: [note]https://www.power-technology.com/%20comment/q3-2017-global-power-markets-glance/[/note]
Installed power capacity, 2016: 6,473 Gigawatts
Compound annual growth rate: 4.1%
Thermal power percent of global installed capacity, 2016: 61.1%
Associated power, 2016: 3,954 Gigawatts
Expected power by 2030: 5,318 Gigawatts
Compound annual growth rate: 2.1%
Installed capacity of hydropower, 2016: 1,200 Gigawatts
Percent of global installed capacity, 2016: 18.6%
Total renewable energy constituted, 2016: 928 Gigawatts
Installed capacity: 14.3%
Estimated power increase by 2025: from 10% (14.3% to 23.4%)
Cash in the United States, March 2 * source: [note]https://www.pymnts.com/cash/2017/united-states-cash-usage/[/note]
Percent cash usage of gross domestic product (GDP) since 2003: 14.3%-15.5%
U.S. cash usage as a percentage of GDP, 2015: 13.1%
Compared to Western European countries in 2015: higher
Estimated cash usage as a percentage of GDP, 2020: 11.7%
Cash usage transaction representation percentage from 2012-2015: from 40% to 32%
American spending amount with cash, 2015: $2,359 billion
Amount card spending, 2015: $5,572 billion
Earning amount of families who use cash for 48 % of transactions: > $25,000
Earning amount families who use cash for 33% of transactions: $25,000-$50,000
Percentage of U.S. households who use cash for a third or more of transactions: 45%
2020 world companies by capitalization (market value), March 2 *source: [note]https://www.statista.com/statistics/263264/top-companies-in-the-world-by-market-capitalization/[/note]
Global market capitalization total, April 2020: $1.68 trillion
Market capitalization of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company: $1,648.8 billion
Ranking: 1
Net income, 2019: $88.21 billion
Market capitalization of Microsoft (United States): $1,359 billion
Ranking: 2
Market capitalization of Apple (United States): $1,285.5 billion
Ranking: 3
Market capitalization of Amazon (United States): $1,233.4 billion
Ranking: 4
Market capitalization of Alphabet- Google (United States): $919.3 billion
Ranking: 5
Number of 100 largest companies located in the United States: 58
Largest company in the world by revenue: Walmart
Highest number of employees in the world: Walmart
2020 consumer credit review, March 2 *source: [note]https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/consumer-credit-review/[/note]
Mortgage debt growth, 2020: +2%
National average FICO score increase, 2020: +7 points
Average FICO score, 2019: 703
Average FICO score, 2020: 710
Ranking: largest annual improvement in 10 years (decade)
National average debt increase, 2020: +248 points
Average debt balance, 2019: $92,479
Average debt balance, 2020: $92,727
Average credit card balance, 2019-2020: $5,313
Average personal loan balance, 2019-2020: $16,458
Average student loan balance, 2019-2020: $38,792
Average mortgage balance, 2019-2020: $208,185
Average auto loan balance, 2019-2020: $19,703
United States vs global population, March 3 *source: [note]https://www.census.gov/popclock/[/note]
United States population, March 3, 2021: 330,116,326 (330 million)
Global populous ranking: 3rd highest
Time between every 1 birth: 9 seconds
Time between every 1 death: 11 seconds
Time between every 1 international (net) migrant: 666 seconds
Time between net gain of 1 person: 40 seconds
United States population located in the Southern region, 2019: 125,580,448 (125 million)
Percent of total: 38.3%
Largest United States population by age, 2019: 29 year olds
Share of male population: 0.75%
Share of female population: 0.72%
World population, March 3, 2021: 7,746,989,940 (7.7 billion)
Population of China: 1,394,015, 977 (1.4 billion)
Rank: most populous country in the world
Population of India: 1,325,349,639 (1.3 billion)
Rank: 2nd most populous country in the world
Population of Indonesia: 272,856,400 (272 million)
Rank: 4th most populous country in the world
Population of Pakistan: 233,431,156 (233 million)
Rank: 5th most populous country in the world
Visa 2018 annual report, March 3 *source: [note]https://s1.q4cdn.com/050606653/files/doc_financials/annual/2018/Visa-2018-Annual-Report-FINAL.pdf[/note]
Net operating revenue, 2018: $20,609 million
Stockholder equity, 2018: $34,006 million
Total operation volume (payments & cash), 2018: $11.2 trillion
Volume cards: 3.3 billion
Number of Visa transactions per day, 2018: upwards of half a billion (500,000 million)
2020 Visa profit margin, March 3 *source: [note]https://ycharts.com/companies/V/profit_margin[/note]
Profit margin, 2020: 54.97%
Data timeline: quarterly
Coal-fired power plants in the United States, March 3 *source: [note]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coal-fired_power_stations_in_the_United_States[/note]
Total United States coal powered units, 2019: 241
Percent of generated electricity: 23%
Installed capacity: 236 GW
Number of coal plants closed between 2010-2019: 290
Percent of generating capacity: 40%
Natural gas percentage of United States total electricity generation: 40%