Polls in One Place.

And some interesting data as well.

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Editor’s Note: Polls in One Place is (mostly) compiled by Tom Smith, our research wizard. Its content reflects its title (polls from the week prior, aggregated in one newsletter). It also includes “data” that we think are interesting, important or both.

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1. In the first seven months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, spending on net interest has reached $514 billion, surpassing spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion). Overall spending has totaled $3.9 trillion thus far. Spending on interest is also more than all the money spent this year on veterans, education, and transportation combined. (Source: crfb.org, italics ours)

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2. In February, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that annual net interest costs would total $870 billion in 2024 and almost double over the upcoming decade. That is equivalent to soaring from $951 billion in 2025 to $1.6 trillion in 2034 and summing to $12.4 trillion over that period. However, if inflation is higher than CBO’s projections and if the Fed holds interest rates longer than the agency projected, such costs may rise even faster than anticipated. According to CBO’s projections, interest payments would total around $77 trillion over the next 30 years and would take up 34 percent of all federal revenues by 2054. Interest costs would also become the largest “program” over the next few decades — surpassing defense spending in 2024 and Social Security in 2051.

(Source: pgpf.org)

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3. Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults say they have money invested in the stock market, the highest percentage Gallup has measured since 2008. Stock ownership fell during the Great Recession and stayed depressed for more than a decade, including lows of 52% in 2013 and 2016. Most Gallup surveys prior to 2008 found 60% or more of U.S. adults owning stock. (Source: news.gallup.com)

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4. U.S. gasoline and diesel demand are at their weakest seasonal level since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday, pulling refiners' margins for making the products to multi-month lows. The 4-week average demand for gasoline stood at 8.63 million barrels per day (bpd) in the week ended May 3, the lowest reading for the start of May since 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic decimated demand for transportation fuels. Four-week average demand for distillate fuels, which includes diesel and heating oil, stood at 3.60 million bpd, also the weakest seasonal level since the pandemic, according to the EIA. Some analysts have said the weakening demand for these products could be an indicator of stagnating economic activity, while others say it highlights a growing share of renewable fuels replacing conventional fossil fuels. (Source: reuters.com)

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5. More Americans than a year ago expect home prices to rise in their local area. At the same time, Americans remain highly pessimistic about the market for homebuyers -- 21% say it is a good time, and 76% say it is a bad time, to buy a house, essentially tying last year’s measures as the worst in Gallup’s trend. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults expect home prices in their local area to increase in the coming year, up from 56% a year ago and among the highest readings Gallup has measured to date. The only higher readings were 71% in 2021 and 70% in 2005 and 2022. (Source: news.gallup.com)

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6. The system is rigged:

(Source: ipsos.com)