Quote for today…

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. ― Confucius

Welcome to “Thursday Numbers!” If you are a first-time visitor, this is the weekly column where I look at the numbers in the news (in descending order) and provide commentary sometimes sprinkled with sarcasm and humor.

This week’s topics include COVID numbers, unemployment claims, ballots counted, TWW poll results, Biden approval numbers, states and drug use, gas prices, interest rate change, and more!

141,000,000

The company behind the TurboTax tax-filing program will pay $141 million to customers across the United States who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services, New York’s attorney general announced Wednesday. (AP)

According to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, approximately 16,700 Montanans will benefit, receiving a payment directly from the settlement fund within the next few months. The payment will be sent automatically, there is no need for consumers to go through any kind of claims process. (MTDOJ)

1,000,000

The U.S. on Wednesday surpassed 1 million Covid-19 deaths, according to data compiled by NBC News — a once unthinkable scale of loss even for the country with the world’s highest recorded toll from the virus. The number — equivalent to the population of San Jose, California, the 10th largest city in the U.S. — was reached at stunning speed: 27 months after the country confirmed its first case of the virus. (NBC News)

200,000

In the week ending April 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 200,000, an increase of 19,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 180,000 to 181,000. The 4-week moving average was 188,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 250 from 179,750 to 180,000. (DOL)

Note: On Thursdays, this column is published right after 6:30 a.m. (Montana time), so I can post the latest unemployment numbers.

48,730

That’s how many ballots were counted in Tuesday’s election for the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees. (GF Tribune)

More about this election in my Friday column.

53

This week’s poll question asked, “Do you approve of Elon Musk buying Twitter?” Here are the results:

NO: 53%
UNDECIDED: 28%
YES: 19%

Thanks for participating!

42.3

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, that is President Joe Biden’s current approval rating. (Source)

Last week, Biden’s approval rating was 41.9%.

16

Montana came in at #16 for states with the highest drug use and was ranked #4 for the highest percentage of teenage drug users. (WalletHub)

0.084 – 10.87

That is the average price per gallon of gas around the world as of May 2, 2022. (Source)

In the USA, the average price on May 2 was $4.58. The week before (April 25), the average price in the USA was $4.51.

0.5

The Federal Reserve intensified its fight against the worst inflation in 40 years by raising its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday — its most aggressive move since 2000 — and signaling further large rate hikes to come. (AP)

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