Chip Bok's Bokbluster

The Dow hit another record high yesterday. Unemployment is at a record low. Though The Hill says the 4.1% rate is more like 8% when you include the underemployed. At any rate over half of those polled by CNBC rated the economy as “good” or “excellent.

Life Expectancy

Yet life expectancy declined in the U.S. from 76.3 to 76.1 years for men. The rate for women held steady at 81.1 years. The Washington Post reported that 63,632 people died of overdoses in 2016 and 42,000 of those were from opioids.

National Review’s David French notes that more people died from overdoses last year than in the entire Vietnam war.