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| 1. | Brandon Donnelly | 14M |
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| 6. | Ev Tchebotarev | 170.5K |
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| 9. | William Mougayar's Blog | 28.4K |
| 10. | Empress Trash | 19.8K |
Whether you live in North Dakota or Texas, there's a reasonable chance that when you travel internationally, you enjoy going to Cancun. Or perhaps you fly into Cancun and then go to a neighboring town like Tulum. United Airlines just released the following map showing the most-booked international destinations from every state for passengers traveling on United Airlines between January and October 2025. The top three destinations are London, Cancun, and Tokyo:
First, it's important to keep in mind that this data only includes people flying on United; it doesn't capture all international air travel. Second, maps like this are necessarily going to be influenced by an airline's biggest hubs. In the case of United, its hub-and-spoke model relies on major airports and routes like San Francisco-Tokyo and Newark-Heathrow.
Still, specific destinations appear on this map for a reason. Cancun is the number one "vacation" airport for Americans, which is an incredible success story, because it wasn't a place until the 1970s. Prior to Cancun, Acapulco was Mexico's top resort destination, but it was becoming constrained, and the government needed a replacement conduit for extracting US dollars from the American middle class. So, they developed Cancun.
The popularity of Tokyo is likely partly a result of a weaker yen, in addition to being an important Asian hub and an incredible place to visit. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), over 2.7 million Americans visited the country in 2024 — a 33% year-over-year increase and a 58% increase compared to 2019.
The country also saw 3.7 million international visitors in January 2025, which is the highest ever for a single month. Countries like the US and Canada also set all-time records for January arrivals. Part of this, I'm sure, has to do with Japan's legendary "Japow." I was part of this year's cohort, and I've never seen so much snow as I did on the island of Hokkaido.
There are also very specific one-off relationships that appear on United's map. The number one destination for the state of Arizona is, for example, Taipei. And this is being driven by a semiconductor boom, specifically Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's direct investment in the state. At the time, it was heralded as "the largest foreign direct investment in a greenfield project in American history."
So, there's a lot that can be gleaned from a map like this. If we were to zoom out and look at all international air travel, we would likely see some reordering. I suspect Paris would jump ahead of airports like Vancouver, given its hub status for other airlines. But it's unlikely you'd see a completely different list. Americans fly east to London, south to Cancun, west to Tokyo, and north to Toronto. These are the primary hub airports.
Trumps' tariffs are supposed to take effect today. Here's a quote from the Globe and Mail, published yesterday:
“Very importantly, tomorrow, tariffs, 25 per cent on Canada and 25 per cent on Mexico, and that will start. So, they’re gonna have to have a tariff,” Mr. Trump said.
But it's still not clear that he understands how these tariffs will work. Either that, or he's lying and trying to trick people. Because he continues to deny that tariffs represent a tax paid by US importers (and ultimately US consumers) on things coming from Canada and Mexico.
Here's another quote:
"It’s not going to be a cost to you [Americans], it’s going to be a cost to another country."
Yeah, that's not how they work:
When the US puts a tariff on an imported good, the cost of the tariff usually comes directly out of the bank account of an American buyer.
“It’s fair to call a tariff a tax because that’s exactly what it is,” said Erica York, a senior economist at the right-leaning Tax Foundation.
“There’s no way around it. It is a tax on people who buy things from foreign businesses,” she added.
In any event, in the real world, tariffs are bad. They're bad for everyone. So much so, that
As many of you know, I am learning French, again.
One of the small things that I found really interesting in this week's class -- besides, of course, figuring out how the hell to use le subjonctif -- was the expression "en province." In France, this effectively refers to any place in the country that isn't Paris -- the capital city/region. And it turns out that many other countries employ a similar kind of vocabulary.
According to Wikipedia, people in Peru say "en provincias", people in Mexico say "la provincia", people in Poland say "prowincjonalny", and people in Bulgaria say "в провинцията", whatever that means. What is fascinating to me about this is that it implies a very capital and urban-centric mentality. You're either in the capital city or you're, well, in the provinces.
It's also not something that is used in either Canada or the US. In Toronto, you'll hear people say that someone is "up north" and, in Philly, you'll hear people say "down the shore" to indicate that they're headed in the general vicinity of the east coast. But as far as I'm aware, there isn't a specific term that is used to describe any and all lands that exist outside of our capital cities.
Maybe it's because Ottawa isn't our biggest city and so it would be silly to designate everything outside of it as being some sort of provincial non-capital territory. But I wonder if part of it is because we don't have the same urban-centric mentality. Could it be that we just don't value and think about our principal cities in the same way?
Whether you live in North Dakota or Texas, there's a reasonable chance that when you travel internationally, you enjoy going to Cancun. Or perhaps you fly into Cancun and then go to a neighboring town like Tulum. United Airlines just released the following map showing the most-booked international destinations from every state for passengers traveling on United Airlines between January and October 2025. The top three destinations are London, Cancun, and Tokyo:
First, it's important to keep in mind that this data only includes people flying on United; it doesn't capture all international air travel. Second, maps like this are necessarily going to be influenced by an airline's biggest hubs. In the case of United, its hub-and-spoke model relies on major airports and routes like San Francisco-Tokyo and Newark-Heathrow.
Still, specific destinations appear on this map for a reason. Cancun is the number one "vacation" airport for Americans, which is an incredible success story, because it wasn't a place until the 1970s. Prior to Cancun, Acapulco was Mexico's top resort destination, but it was becoming constrained, and the government needed a replacement conduit for extracting US dollars from the American middle class. So, they developed Cancun.
The popularity of Tokyo is likely partly a result of a weaker yen, in addition to being an important Asian hub and an incredible place to visit. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), over 2.7 million Americans visited the country in 2024 — a 33% year-over-year increase and a 58% increase compared to 2019.
The country also saw 3.7 million international visitors in January 2025, which is the highest ever for a single month. Countries like the US and Canada also set all-time records for January arrivals. Part of this, I'm sure, has to do with Japan's legendary "Japow." I was part of this year's cohort, and I've never seen so much snow as I did on the island of Hokkaido.
There are also very specific one-off relationships that appear on United's map. The number one destination for the state of Arizona is, for example, Taipei. And this is being driven by a semiconductor boom, specifically Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's direct investment in the state. At the time, it was heralded as "the largest foreign direct investment in a greenfield project in American history."
So, there's a lot that can be gleaned from a map like this. If we were to zoom out and look at all international air travel, we would likely see some reordering. I suspect Paris would jump ahead of airports like Vancouver, given its hub status for other airlines. But it's unlikely you'd see a completely different list. Americans fly east to London, south to Cancun, west to Tokyo, and north to Toronto. These are the primary hub airports.
Trumps' tariffs are supposed to take effect today. Here's a quote from the Globe and Mail, published yesterday:
“Very importantly, tomorrow, tariffs, 25 per cent on Canada and 25 per cent on Mexico, and that will start. So, they’re gonna have to have a tariff,” Mr. Trump said.
But it's still not clear that he understands how these tariffs will work. Either that, or he's lying and trying to trick people. Because he continues to deny that tariffs represent a tax paid by US importers (and ultimately US consumers) on things coming from Canada and Mexico.
Here's another quote:
"It’s not going to be a cost to you [Americans], it’s going to be a cost to another country."
Yeah, that's not how they work:
When the US puts a tariff on an imported good, the cost of the tariff usually comes directly out of the bank account of an American buyer.
“It’s fair to call a tariff a tax because that’s exactly what it is,” said Erica York, a senior economist at the right-leaning Tax Foundation.
“There’s no way around it. It is a tax on people who buy things from foreign businesses,” she added.
In any event, in the real world, tariffs are bad. They're bad for everyone. So much so, that
As many of you know, I am learning French, again.
One of the small things that I found really interesting in this week's class -- besides, of course, figuring out how the hell to use le subjonctif -- was the expression "en province." In France, this effectively refers to any place in the country that isn't Paris -- the capital city/region. And it turns out that many other countries employ a similar kind of vocabulary.
According to Wikipedia, people in Peru say "en provincias", people in Mexico say "la provincia", people in Poland say "prowincjonalny", and people in Bulgaria say "в провинцията", whatever that means. What is fascinating to me about this is that it implies a very capital and urban-centric mentality. You're either in the capital city or you're, well, in the provinces.
It's also not something that is used in either Canada or the US. In Toronto, you'll hear people say that someone is "up north" and, in Philly, you'll hear people say "down the shore" to indicate that they're headed in the general vicinity of the east coast. But as far as I'm aware, there isn't a specific term that is used to describe any and all lands that exist outside of our capital cities.
Maybe it's because Ottawa isn't our biggest city and so it would be silly to designate everything outside of it as being some sort of provincial non-capital territory. But I wonder if part of it is because we don't have the same urban-centric mentality. Could it be that we just don't value and think about our principal cities in the same way?
“Tariffs are actually, we’ve had a lot of experience with them. They’re an act of war, to some degree,” said Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has large businesses in insurance, railroads, manufacturing, energy and retail. He made the remarks in an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for a new documentary on the late publisher of The Washington Post, Katharine Graham. “Over time, they are a tax on goods. I mean, the tooth fairy doesn’t pay ’em!” Buffett said with a laugh. “And then what? You always have to ask that question in economics. You always say, ‘And then what?’”
So let's look at "and then what" when it comes to the automotive sector.
The auto sector is the largest component of trade across Canada, the US, and Mexico. It makes up 22% of all the goods and services the flow across our borders. And in 2023, we produced some 16 million cars together, which generally include parts and materials from all three countries. We're extremely integrated. The WSJ recently broke this down, over here, and if you look at something like pistons, you'll see that this component alone typically crosses a border about 6 times:
What this means is that if you start forcing US importers to pay a tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods, and then Canada and Mexico retaliate with the same (because we/they have to), the entire model breaks down, unless of course consumers are comfortable paying a lot more. Of course, most of you already knew this. Last year, $1.6 trillion worth of goods moved back and forth across the US, Canada, and Mexico. It would be better for all three of us if this number went up, and not down, this year.
Cover photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
“Tariffs are actually, we’ve had a lot of experience with them. They’re an act of war, to some degree,” said Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has large businesses in insurance, railroads, manufacturing, energy and retail. He made the remarks in an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell for a new documentary on the late publisher of The Washington Post, Katharine Graham. “Over time, they are a tax on goods. I mean, the tooth fairy doesn’t pay ’em!” Buffett said with a laugh. “And then what? You always have to ask that question in economics. You always say, ‘And then what?’”
So let's look at "and then what" when it comes to the automotive sector.
The auto sector is the largest component of trade across Canada, the US, and Mexico. It makes up 22% of all the goods and services the flow across our borders. And in 2023, we produced some 16 million cars together, which generally include parts and materials from all three countries. We're extremely integrated. The WSJ recently broke this down, over here, and if you look at something like pistons, you'll see that this component alone typically crosses a border about 6 times:
What this means is that if you start forcing US importers to pay a tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods, and then Canada and Mexico retaliate with the same (because we/they have to), the entire model breaks down, unless of course consumers are comfortable paying a lot more. Of course, most of you already knew this. Last year, $1.6 trillion worth of goods moved back and forth across the US, Canada, and Mexico. It would be better for all three of us if this number went up, and not down, this year.
Cover photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
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