Category «Economy»

FTC Surveillance Pricing Study – Wide Range of Personal Data Used to Set Individualized Consumer Prices

“The agency details interim insights from staff perspective examining how companies track consumer behaviors to inform surveillance pricing. The Federal Trade Commission’s initial findings from its surveillance pricing market study revealed that details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same …

Subjects: E-Commerce, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Top financial watchdog warns climate change set to trigger market panics

Financial Times – “Basel-based FSB says damage caused by floods, droughts and fires threatens broader pullback in lending, “The world’s financial stability watchdog has warned that disasters caused by climate change are increasingly likely to trigger broader panic in financial markets. The world breached 1.5C of warming above preindustrial levels for the first time last …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System

ProPublica Releases New Private School Demographics Lookup

“Now you can look up detailed demographic information about thousands of private schools across the country and compare them to nearby public schools. Private schools in the United States are, on the whole, whiter than public schools, with fewer Black, Hispanic or Latino students. This may not be a surprising statistic because private schools can …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Education

Americans Use AI in Everyday Products Without Realizing It

Axios: “The vast majority of Americans use products that involve AI, but their views of the technology remain overwhelmingly negative, according to a Gallup-Telescope survey published Wednesday.Why it matters: The rapid advancement of generative AI threatens to have far-reaching consequences for Americans’ everyday lives, including reshaping the job market, impacting elections, and affecting the healthcare …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Marketing, Medicine

AI in Finance and Banking, January 15, 2025

Via LLRX – AI in Finance and Banking, January 15, 2025 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Education, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management

US sales of physical books rose in 2024 after three years of decline

“Industry figures showed that 782.7 million print books were sold last year, up 1% on 2023 although still nearly 40 million down from the peak of 2021. Growth was driven by fiction, especially fantasy, while adult nonfiction, the biggest category, fell slightly. Print editions have been challenged by both ebooks and audiobooks: The latter are …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Libraries

Big 3 Pharmacy Benefit Manager charging enormous markups on dozens of lifesaving drugs

“The Federal Trade Commission today published a second interim staff report on the prescription drug middleman industry, which focuses on pharmacy benefit managers’ (PBMs) influence over specialty generic drugs, including significant price markups by PBMs for cancer, HIV, and a variety of other critical drugs. Staff’s latest report found that the ‘Big 3 PBMs’—Caremark Rx, …

Subjects: Economy, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

How a major bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion

Popular Information: “An explosive new lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) alleges that Capital One bank cheated its customers out of $2 billion. According to the lawsuit, Capital One deceived and abused its depositors, baiting them with promises of high interest rates before switching the terms and paying little interest. The CFPB …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

The home insurance crisis can’t be fixed with money alone

Semafor: “The devastating wildfires that are sweeping Los Angeles may accelerate the flight of home insurance companies from California in spite of recent regulatory changes aimed at retaining them, the state’s previous top insurance official told Semafor. At least two major fires are still raging largely uncontained, aided by ongoing high winds, and 24 people …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Housing

U.S. Employee Engagement Sinks to 10-Year Low

Gallup: “Employee engagement in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, with only 31% of employees engaged. This matches the figure last seen in 2014. The percentage of actively disengaged employees, at 17%, also reflects 2014 levels. The percentage of engaged employees has declined by two percentage points since 2023, …

Subjects: Economy, Knowledge Management

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