Economics/Business Archives - Attention to the Unseen

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

From elsewhere — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:35:53 +0000

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

From elsewhere — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 01:07:08 +0000

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

From elsewhere — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 01:04:32 +0000

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

From elsewhere — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 01:09:41 +0000

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

From elsewhere — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 23:35:47 +0000

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

From elsewhere — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 23:35:29 +0000

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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McKinsey: AI will create millions new jobs — in places you don’t live, for workers with skills you don’t have

From elsewhere — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 23:35:12 +0000

McKinsey Global Institute reports: While social media abounds with dire predictions about the impact of AI on labor, the United States is likely to have more jobs available in 2035 than today, but with fewer workers because the population is aging. While estimates of the full impact of AI on the workforce differ widely, our base estimate indicates that automation could reduce labor demand by the equivalent of roughly 36 million jobs, while growth in the AI value chain and...

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Are the AI hyperscalers engaged in the ‘largest misallocation of capital in history’?

From elsewhere — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:11:10 +0000

David Rotman writes: When Jessica Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, wanted to assess AI’s impact on the economy over the next few years, she faced a long list of business and technical uncertainties. So she started with what she calls a “remarkable fact” that is not in question: A handful of so-called hyperscalers are investing huge amounts of money to build AI data centers. Instead of trying to predict how useful and widely deployed...

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Economic strain is pitting China’s people against each other

From elsewhere — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:09:53 +0000

From Beijing, Helen Gao writes: For years, the mood in China has been darkening. A weakening economy has left many disillusioned, a state of mind expressed privately and across the heavily controlled internet in lowered expectations and quiet anxiety. Some of that may now be surfacing in more troubling ways. In March, a man drove a heavy construction vehicle through an outdoor market in a Beijing suburb, reportedly killing several people. In June, a small aircraft crashed into a prominent...

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Amazon’s $1 billion plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash

From elsewhere — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 01:06:24 +0000

Ars Technica reports: On Friday, Amazon committed to donating more than $1 billion over the next five years to communities neighboring data centers. In a press release, Amazon Web Services’ CEO Matt Garman said that communities would decide how to prioritize funds across “education, job training, energy affordability, water, and energy preservation, and local priorities.” Laying out other community commitments, Amazon also promised to ensure data centers wouldn’t increase power bills or wipe out local water supplies. Regarding the latter,...

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