Category «Economy»

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

TechCrunch: “The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Internet, Knowledge Management

My journey into the surreal, infuriating future of homeowners insurance

Business Insider: “I take privacy and surveillance extremely seriously — so seriously that I started one of the leading think tanks on the topic, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. But while I study surveillance threats around the country for a living, I had no idea that my own insurance company was using my premium dollars …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Financial System, Housing, Privacy

We need to prepare for ‘addictive intelligence’

MIT Technology Review [unpaywalled] The allure of AI companions is hard to resist. Here’s how innovation in regulation can help protect people. “AI concerns overemphasize harms arising from subversion rather than seduction. Worries about AI often imagine doomsday scenarios where systems escape human control or even understanding. Short of those nightmares, there are nearer-term harms …

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Economy, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

The olive oil wars

EDJNet – The European Data Journalism Network: “Italy convinced the world that it was the king of liquid gold by selling Spanish oil, but now Spain has appropriated ‘Made in Italy’. With 283 million olive trees, Spain dominates the global olive oil market: in the 2021/22 season, the last one before drought destroyed its harvest, …

Subjects: Economy, Food and Nutrition

Climate Deniers of the 118th Congress

“The Center for American Progress has periodically analyzed statements by sitting members of Congress to determine whether they deny the existence of human-caused climate change. This analysis of the 118th U.S. Congress found that 123 elected officials are climate deniers—23 percent of 535 total members. These 100 representatives and 23 senators wield significant influence on …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Housing, Legal Research, Legislation

Snow Belt to Sun Belt Migration: End of an Era?

Leduc, Sylvain, and Daniel J. Wilson. 2024. “Snow Belt to Sun Belt Migration: End of an Era?” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper July 18, 2024-21. https://doi.org/10.24148/wp2024-21 -“Internal migration has been cited as a key channel by which societies will adapt to climate change. We show in this paper that this process has …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Health Care

Laid-off California tech workers are sick to death of LinkedIn

SFGate – Tech workers hate the Bay Area company’s site. But more than ever, they need it: “…Over the past few years, folks online have repeatedly called the platform a “cesspool,” whether in a viral TikTok video’s caption, a popular Reddit post or even on LinkedIn itself. (In fact, “cesspool” has swung into fashion as …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Economy, Marketing, Microsoft, Social Media

AI in Finance and Banking, July 31, 2024

Via LLRX – AI in Finance and Banking, July 31, 2024 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, industry white papers, academic papers and speeches on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and …

Subjects: AI, Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research

Why, Exactly, are Ultraprocessed Foods so Hard to Resist?

The New York Times [unpaywalled] – “This Study is Trying to Find Out….Ultraprocessed foods encompass a large range of foods and drinks that are made using methods and ingredients you wouldn’t typically use or find in a home kitchen. Sodas, processed meats and flavored yogurts are part of this category, as are most breakfast cereals, …

Subjects: Economy, Food and Nutrition, Health Care, Marketing

Our World in Data

Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems – “Poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality: The world faces many great and terrifying problems. It is these large problems that our work at Our World in Data focuses on. Thanks to the work of thousands of researchers around the …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Poverty, Search Engines

Here’s how extreme climate is driving inflation

“TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — In today’s Climate Classroom, we will be speaking to William S. Becker, a writer for The Hill, a Nexstar-owned property on climate inflation, better known by its new name “climateflation.” No doubt it’s a new term to most, but it’s very real and it’s already hitting us in the wallet— think …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition, Housing