2+ week, 15+ hour ago   (223+ words) Researchers at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve have found that massive artificial intelligence demand on memory and computer hardware has driven up core inflation as much as the tariffs President Donald Trump imposed early last year. Core PCE inflation, which excludes…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (346+ words) The cost of a call in a telephone booth long ago dropped to zero. Should we give Fed officials a pat on the back for their brilliant market interventions of the “monetary policy” variety on the way to this alleged…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (478+ words) Walmart’s earnings have long been considered an unofficial gauge of consumer health, and on Thursday the company reported its slowest U.S. sales growth in years. Shares of the world’s largest retailer fell 9% despite beating Wall Street’s earnings expectations. The company’s…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (1600+ words) On July 13 the Stanford Digital Economy Lab released a statement running to eighty-eight words. It carried the title We Must Act Now, organized by Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and co-founder of Workhelix, with Ajay Agrawal,…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago   (1024+ words) The United States is on pace to top the $6 trillion milestone in merchandise trade in 2026, a remarkable feat largely driven on the import side by the computer hardware needs for AI data centers. I wrote about the U.S. exports that have…...

4+ week, 2+ day ago   (829+ words) U.S. households cumulatively had $1.26 trillion in credit card debt as of June 30, 2026, after a $21 billion increase during the second quarter, according to the New York Fed. Also concerning is that nearly 7% of credit card balances that were current or in early…...