On Sunday, the U.S. and EU agreed on a trade deal that will result in a tariff reduction from 30 percent to 15 percent on approximately 70 percent of imported European goods. The EU has agreed to invest an additional $600 billion in the U.S. and to purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy products.  

As of the writing of this newsletter, adjustments to EU tariffs on American goods are yet to be announced. The EU collects a duty on around 25 percent of U.S. imports. The overall U.S. trade deficit with the EU has decreased since 2020 and was $58 billion in 2024. 

The U.S. exports far more services than goods to the EU, but on net, trade between the two nations levels out: 

Creative Commons License CC BY-ND 3.0 Source: Statista

As of 7/28/25 

Other tariff updates: 

As of 7/28/25 

Trump Makes Top 10 

President Donald Trump is now ranked among the world’s wealthiest politicians, as nicely illustrated by this Veroni graphic: 

As of 2025 

Observations: 

Monarchies are still in the money. Four of the five wealthiest rulers inherited their country’s treasury along with their crown. 

Oil and gas are still cash cows. Every fortune exceeding $40 billion in the graphic above floats on crude reserves. 

Sanctions are snickered at by those who may have lost their luxury yachts in international asset seizures but have shell companies parked in London, Dubai, Delaware — and Nevada. 

Jobs of the Future 

The World Economic Forum is out with the 2025 update to its annual report on the job skills most likely to be wanted as time rolls on: 

As of June 2025 

The High Cost of Living  

Many states offer a low cost of living, which attracts humans looking for a nice lifestyle or post-retirement home for a comparatively affordable price. On the flip side are the 10 states with the highest average cost of living (COL), listed by the team at Daily Passport and based on 2025 data from the Council for Community and Economic Research. 

New England 

Massachusetts — The highest COL in the country is the ancestral home of both branches of Fact Pack Editor Elizabeth Thompson’s family, marking one of two reasons she does not live there (the other: winter). Residents pay 45.1 percent more to reside in The Bay State (aka The Codfish State), though groceries and transportation cost only 2.7 percent and 3 percent more than the national average, respectively. 

• The average price of a home in Massachusetts is 115 percent higher than the national average. 

• Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, is the state’s most expensive city, according to Redfin. Its median home price is $3.305 million, and if you want a place in the city expect to pay Boston’s average of $793,819, per Zillow. 

Duke’s County, MA, encompasses Martha’s Vineyard, where the median home price is $1,518,051 (as of June 2025) 

Vermont — It takes a fair amount of green to live in The Green Mountain State, where median home prices are more than 30 percent higher than the U.S. average, and the COL is +13.7 percent. The most expensive zip codes? Woodstock, which Forbes reports has median home values around $968,000, and the popular ski town of Stowe, where homes average $943,00. Once the boxes are unpacked, utilities will run you 14.5 more, and groceries will cost 6.4 percent more than the national norm. 

Connecticut — The Nutmeg State offers grocery costs and transportation fees that are relatively affordable (1.5 percent and 3.1 percent higher than the national average), but housing prices run more than 20 percent higher, on average, than in the rest of the country. Connecticut residents pay 37.6 percent more for utilities, on average, in part because (as reported by NBC Connecticut), the two biggest utility companies pipe in electricity from out of state, which costs a not-small amount of money. 

Maine — The average cost of housing in The Pine Tree State is about 33 percent more than the national average. Think Kennebunkport, where Stacker (using Zillow data) reports home prices average around $1.1 million (as of June). Transportation costs and fees are 4 percent higher than the national average. Groceries are 0.3 percent pricier. 

The Mid-Atlantic 

New York — Relocating to NYC’s home state will cost you 27.4 percent more, and house that costs 74.2 percent more, though utility costs are in line with the national average. That said, you can buy a house in Buffalo for just $243,408 (a very nice price indeed, though not as low as in many of these 15 cities listed by Kiplinger). 

Maryland — Just shy of 15 percent more expensive than the national average COL The Free State’s prices are far from free. Housing is about 34 percent higher than average, in part because of the proximity of Washington, D.C. and desirable coastal locales including Chesapeake Bay. Utilities cost 14.4 percent more. 

Maryland and surrounding areas As of 07/28/25 

New Jersey — The Garden State has seen skyrocketing housing costs: 43.3 percent more than the national average. The median home price in Deal, NJ, is $6.26 million, and in Alpine, residents pay $5.39 million, per Realtor.com (as of June). Groceries, utilities, and transportation cost between 1.4 percent to 4.2 percent higher than average. 

The West, Far West, and Far Northwest 

Alaska — Delivering food and other goods to America’s northernmost state means a COL that is 27.3 percent higher than the national average. Furniture and automobiles cost more, and grocery, utility, and housing prices are all about 30 percent more (groceries are the second most costly in country, after Hawaii). 

California — In return for the niceties of living in The Golden State, residents have the third-most-expensive utility costs (40.7 percent higher), and the second-highest transportation cost (38.7 percent higher) than the national average. 

• Percentage above the national COL average: 41.6 percent 

• Housing costs 97.8 percent more than the average nationwide, second only to Massachusetts and Hawaii. Daly City, Westminster, and Newport Beach are pricier yet, and the latter is the most expensive city in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. 

Hawaii — Last and most expensive is America’s lovely Pacific outpost, where newcomers will pay 82.3 percent more to live. Aloha! 

• As in Alaska, its remote location makes the cost of goods quite high. Groceries in Hawaii cost 34.6 percent more; transportation costs 43.1 more; and utilities are 107 percent higher than average.  

• Housing runs 192.1 percent more than the U.S. average, and home values average just shy of $834,000, per Zillow (as of June). 

The state’s housing market saw the median sale price rise from $590,533 in January 2018 to a pre-pandemic median of $619,050 in January 2020 to a peak-high of $857,561 in July 2022. 

As of June 2025 

The market trend in Hawaii’s 9th island, aka Las Vegas, roughly tracked with Aloha State medians, albeit with much lower prices. The median sale price for an increased from $253,438 in January 2018 to a pre-pandemic median of $293,576 in January 2020 to a peak-high of $441,511 in August 2022. 

Prices in Southern Nevada (as of June 2025) show the median home price in Queensridge ($1,029,753) tops the median June price in Hawaii ($834,000): 

As of June 2025 

View the Council for Community and Economic Research’s full 50-state COL report here. 

The First Speeding Ticket 

We won’t disclose which Fact Pack co-publisher might occasionally be observed pushing past a posted speed limit, but we will share an amusing anecdote about the first-ever speeding ticket. Had we guessed the date of the infraction, it would have been well after 1900. We were therefore delighted to learn it occurred in 1896 and involved a “horseless carriage,” a trek through the English village of Paddock Wood, and a bicycle-riding constable. 

On January 28, 1896, according to the team at Interesting Facts, Walter Arnold made history by receiving a citation for traveling 8 miles per hour on the main thoroughfare through town (the lawful limit was 2 miles per hour). He also was cited for: 

• using a “locomotive without a horse” on a public road 

• operating the vehicle with fewer than three people, and 

• failing to clearly display his name and address. 

Arnold was one of England’s early car dealers, and the automobile he was driving that day was a Mercedes Benz. Fast forward a few months, and he began marketing the Arnold Motor Carriage — a vehicle that bore a remarkable resemblance to the Benz he was driving when he was cited for a misdemeanor. 

Source: InterestingFacts.com As of June 2025 

For those who need reminding, the pioneers of automobile manufacturing — Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) and Carl Benz (1844-1929) — began innovating near the end of the 19th century. Formed in 1926, Daimler-Benz AG featured two vehicles: the Daimler Motorengesellschaft and Benz’s Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik (no, we are not making those up). 

Notably, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz never met personally. They simultaneously developed the world’s first automobiles in Mannheim (Benz) and Stuttgart (Daimler) in 1886, but it was Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach — with whom Daimler became acquainted during employment at the engineering works of the Reutlingen Brotherhood — who invented the precursor to the first car engine.  

Fitting a gas engine, as well as one powered by kerosene/paraffin, to a two-wheeler was the smaller, lighter, more powerful innovation that put automaking industry in motion. The engine was called the “grandfather clock” because of its shape. 

A rendering of a Daimler 1.5-hp one-cylinder “grandfather clock” engine from 1885 

Benz meanwhile concentrated on building a three-wheeled vehicle. His three-wheel “Velocipede” originated in 1886 and can be regarded as the world’s first automobile. 

The original “Benz Patent Motor Car” in 1886, considered the world’s first automobile 

More car history here. 

We close by noting that several EU nations have applied economic socialism to their traffic court systems, resulting in some very expensive fines indeed. 

Source: InterestingFacts.com 

Source: Interesting Facts 

On the Horizon

Data & Dialogue About the Economy



The Fact Pack is a monthly business e-report co-authored by Mike PeQueen of Hightower Las Vegas and John Restrepo of RCG Economics, which combines important metrics relevant to business decision makers and financial commentary on the current issues facing the economy.

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