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Category: Economics/Business

The EPA is about to give oil and gas companies a huge methane-related gift

The EPA is about to give oil and gas companies a huge methane-related gift

Mother Jones reports: Last week, less than a month after rolling back power plant pollution standards, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin addressed an audience of oil and gas executives at the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association’s annual meeting in Santa Fe. The environmental agency was “within days,” he told them, of releasing the draft reconsideration of a major Biden-era oil and gas methane rule. The new proposal would weaken regulations on oil and gas operators to allow for…

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U.S.-made goods also got more expensive under Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs, new research finds

U.S.-made goods also got more expensive under Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs, new research finds

Fox News reports: Americans aren’t just seeing the price tag increase for imported goods. Thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, they are now paying more for products made in the U.S.A., according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In fact, the research finds that prices for many everyday goods would have fallen last year and into early 2026 without Trump’s tariffs. The findings offer new evidence of how the sweeping tariff policy, a centerpiece of…

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Rising costs push necessities out of reach for nearly half of Americans

Rising costs push necessities out of reach for nearly half of Americans

The New York Times reports: Close to half of Americans are having trouble paying for basic needs, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, as the rising cost of living continues to exact its toll. The financial burden is especially acute for lower-income adults. Nearly three-quarters said they struggled to pay for food, housing, medical care or daily transportation in the past year compared with 13 percent of upper-income adults. About half of those on the lower end…

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Muse is a digital panopticon disguised as an imp

Mark Zuckerberg’s Muse is a digital panopticon disguised as an imp

Ariana Bindman writes: According to an October report from Yahoo Finance, Muse has been downloaded at least 5 million times since its launch in early September, earning 3 million concurrent users per week. Marketed as a round-the-clock digital serf whose entire existence is literally “built around your whole life,” Muse is meant to buy back users’ time by taking care of mundane busy work, Meta says. Based on reviews from tech reporters, it’s surprisingly capable and efficient. It can call…

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They came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it

They came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it

The Washington Post reports: Last year, billionaire Elon Musk unleashed a small army of Silicon Valley techies to drain what he called the “swamp” of Washington — wielding the U.S. DOGE Service to slash at a bureaucracy they argued was bloated and corrupt. But today, many of his former DOGE foot soldiers have leveraged their government stints to fuel private-sector ambitions: building companies that tap government largesse or that deploy knowledge they garnered during their brief tenures in Washington. A…

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Solar panels that plug into your wall are about to take off

Solar panels that plug into your wall are about to take off

National Geographic reports: On a quiet street in suburban South Salt Lake City, Utah, the stirring of an energy revolution is taking shape. There, outside the spare bedroom of an unassuming, thousand-square-foot midcentury home sit three angled solar panels plugged into a nearby outlet. Unlike the highly technical and expensive hurdles required to install a large rooftop solar system, the setup on Andrew Leon and Victoria Mauro’s lawn is small, portable, and cheap. The unit generates enough electricity to run…

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Japan declares ‘a state of emergency in cyberspace’

Japan declares ‘a state of emergency in cyberspace’

Gizmodo reports: We haven’t quite reached the cyber apocalypse that artificial intelligence companies have warned their technology could unleash on the world, but we’re getting uncomfortably close to a catastrophe on a national scale. According to a report from the Financial Times, Japan is being hammered by cyberattacks, prompting regulators to search for ways to protect financial institutions from potentially devastating disruptions and leading the country to declare “a state of emergency in cyberspace.” Per the report, Japan’s ruling Liberal…

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The biggest source of inequality in the U.S. that no one talks about

The biggest source of inequality in the U.S. that no one talks about

Rogé Karma writes: For 40 years, a huge number of rich business owners have taken advantage of a tax concept known as pass-through income. This anodyne-sounding technique allows millionaires and billionaires to exempt their fortunes from the corporate tax and shield large portions of them from income taxation, depriving the government of trillions of dollars in revenue, driving a huge amount of inequality, and creating a powerful political constituency opposed to reform. “This is arguably the most important development in…

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The happiest countries in the world have the highest levels of trust. The U.S. ranks #23

The happiest countries in the world have the highest levels of trust. The U.S. ranks #23

Quartz reports: A single survey question produces the ranking most often cited as a measure of national well-being. Gallup World Poll interviewers ask people in more than 140 countries to picture a ladder numbered zero to 10. The top rung represents the best possible life for them, the bottom rung the worst. Respondents say which rung they stand on today. That question, known as the Cantril ladder, generates the scores behind the World Happiness Report. The happiest countries in the…

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AI firms prepare for a catastrophic AI event, such as a banking shut down, seen as inevitable in months

AI firms prepare for a catastrophic AI event, such as a banking shut down, seen as inevitable in months

Axios reports: Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event. Why it matters: These officials anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water. The first example of significant real-world harm caused by unsafe AI would turn an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders, including Anthropic…

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Oil prices jump as Iran steps up tanker attacks, hurricane threatens U.S. Gulf production

Oil prices jump as Iran steps up tanker attacks, hurricane threatens U.S. Gulf production

CNBC reports: Crude oil prices rose sharply Thursday, as Iran ramped up its attacks on tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz and Hurricane Isaias threatened U.S. offshore production in the Gulf of Mexico. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, gained 4% to close at $104.28 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures advanced 3.6% to settle at $91.49 per barrel. Nine tankers have come under attack in and around Hormuz over the past week, jeopardizing the recent recovery in crude…

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Most voters say Trump, Congress don’t take AI risks seriously, poll finds

Most voters say Trump, Congress don’t take AI risks seriously, poll finds

Reuters reports: Most US voters think President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress are not taking the risks of AI seriously enough and want the government to ​write new regulations for the technology, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The six-day survey, which ended on Monday, showed that wide swaths of the electorate see AI as ‌a major threat to American jobs, underscoring growing skepticism of the technology from voters across the political spectrum. The fast-advancing technology has become a matter…

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Attacks on tankers in Hormuz hit highest of any week since start of Iran war, sources say

Attacks on tankers in Hormuz hit highest of any week since start of Iran war, sources say

Reuters reports: Attacks on tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz hit their highest last week of any week since the ​Iran war began, according to maritime security sources tracking incidents, amid ‌a bigger export push by Gulf producers. Attacks, attempted attacks and harassment activity including drone overflights, surveillance and hailing using VHF radio by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have persisted ​in the strait, the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said ​in a note on Sunday. “These actions continue…

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The new science that has oil companies running scared

The new science that has oil companies running scared

Jeff Goodell writes: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Suncor Energy, Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, a case that could give fossil fuel companies a get-out-of-jail-free card for the harms caused by climate change. That is not exactly how Kannon Shanmugam — who represents Suncor and Exxon Mobil, another petitioner in the case — framed the argument. He said that dozens of active lawsuits that use state tort law to sue fossil fuel companies…

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AI infrastructure buildout surpasses every prior investment in American history, posing systemic risks

AI infrastructure buildout surpasses every prior investment in American history, posing systemic risks

Quartz reports: A new Brookings Institution study finds that the U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout is on pace to consume a larger share of economic output than any prior technology rollout in American history, including railroads, the interstate highway system, and the internet — while the financing structures underpinning it carry systemic financial risks. The study — authored by Columbia Business School finance and real estate professor Stijn van Nieuwerburgh — puts total spending on data centers and related AI…

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Dean Baker: If AI is crashing, the story should be jail in, not bail out

Dean Baker: If AI is crashing, the story should be jail in, not bail out

Dean Baker writes: We can’t know yet whether the Oracle meltdown, and the AI leaders’ admission that they don’t know what they are doing, will be enough to force the big money actors in the stock market to look at arithmetic, but we can hope. And if they do see reality, and the bubble begins to deflate, and the big AI companies head towards bankruptcy, we can predict what the politicians they bought will look to do: give them huge…

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