Finance
Finance stories covering consumer sentiment, mortgage dynamics, credit cycles, and economic indicators with verified data foundation.
41% Drawdown: ETHA ETF Signals Next Phase
Finance • ETFs • Ethereum • Cryptocurrency • BlackRock • Accumulation
ETHA is down 41% from its all-time high. Exchange supply hit 10.5%, a nine-year low. Large holders accumulated $350 million in the final week of December. The ETH/BTC ratio reached 0.03, the lowest in four years. The drawdown created an entry point into the tightest supply environment since Ethereum launched.
Ethereum hosts 70% of DeFi and 80% of tokenized Treasuries. ETHA captured $12 billion in inflows. This is not a crypto bet. It is a proxy for the digitization of the global financial system.
53.6 Sentiment Crash: Why We Feel Worse Than 2020
Finance • Consumer Sentiment • Economic Psychology • Inflation • Recession
COVID lockdowns (April 2020): sentiment 71.8. Today: 53.6. Americans feel 24% worse now than when 22 million lost jobs overnight. GDP recovered. Unemployment stayed low. So why does the economy feel broken?
Sentiment at 53.6 is just 7% above the all-time low. But wage growth now exceeds inflation. The pessimism measures the past. The paychecks measure the future. Recovery happens in wallets first, feelings second.
52% Payment Shock: Why Your 2021 Rate Was a Historical Anomaly
Finance • Mortgages • Housing • Interest Rates • Affordability
At 3%, the January 2021 mortgage rate was the lowest in 54 years of recorded history. The 54-year historical average is 8%. Today's 6% rate is actually 25% below that average. On a $300,000 loan, the payment jumped from $1,209 to $1,843. We anchored to an anomaly and called it normal.
Today's 6% rate is 25% below the historical average of 8%. The 2021 rate was a once-in-54-years anomaly, not the baseline. When we stop waiting for an outlier to return, we can make decisions based on reality.
Source: FRED MORTGAGE30US