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Today I tell you an unbelievable story, followed by two less interesting pieces.
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The Line with Greg Heym
Good Morning!
Today I tell you an unbelievable story, followed by two less interesting pieces.
Get your calculator ready for this one.

Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. died September 26, at the age of 95. That is not much of a story until you find out that his grandfather was John Tyler, the 10th President of the United States.

President Tyler was born on March 29, 1790 and served as President from 1841 to 1845. He died on January 18, 1862.

So how does someone born in 1790 have a grandchild that dies in 2020?

Tyler fathered 15 children, more than any other president in U.S. history. His second wife, with whom he had seven kids, was 30 years younger than him. Their fifth child, Lyon Sr., was also married twice and his second wife was 35 years his junior.

Still with me?

Their first child was Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. (the one who just died at 95), but even more amazing is that their second child, Harrison Ruffin Tyler (born in 1928), is still alive. Let’s hope he lives a very long time.

And, if all this hasn’t blown your mind yet, in June the last person to receive a Civil War pension died at the age of 90. Irene Triplett had been receiving a $73.13 per month pension, based on her father Mose’s service, and her being deemed “a helpless adult child of a veteran.” Mose was almost 50 years older than Irene’s mom, and 84 years old when she was born.

I know this story has nothing to do with economics or housing, but the math was just as tough.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for September shows that consumers are more optimistic about the labor market and their ability to buy things.

This is good news at a time when hiring has slowed and a second stimulus has yet to be passed.

While it is true that expectations are still much lower than before the pandemic, this modest improvement seems to indicate that consumers believe the worst is past us. Let’s hope it is.
This is always a fun time of the year for me. As an economist, my parents always feel the need to yell at me because the annual cost of living adjustments to their social security never go up enough. Well, I’m sure they’ll be upset again this year with benefits set to rise just 1.3% in 2021 after a 1.6% bump this year. These adjustments are based on something called CPI-W, which you can read more about here.

The low-inflation economy we live in today certainly benefits people who want to borrow money. But it does hurt people on a fixed income with cost of living adjustments, and those who keep a large amount of money in the bank. Unfortunately, many seniors fall into both of those categories.

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