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☆ The biggest threat to the US dollar is America's exorbitant debt load, JPMorgan says
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-17 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

One of the main takeaways was that the biggest threats to dollar dominance are swelling US debt levels and fiscal deficits, which officials in Washington could step up to tackle. "The biggest challenge to US dollar dominance is the US itself given the mounting public debt levels and elevated fiscal deficits," JPMorgan said, in a note summarizing the webinar. For instance, many alarmists have focused on the dollar's share in foreign reserve holdings, often pointing out that the foreign central banks have piled into gold as an alternative. But this fixation omits the fact that bank deposits, sovereign wealth fund assets, and other dollar instruments have been on the rise among reserve holdings, JPMorgan said. "In China's case, it has had an explicit target to bring down dollar holdings in FX reserve but has shifted USD holdings to state-owned entities.

Persons: —, Peter G, Mark Sobel —, Trump, Sobel Organizations: JPMorgan, Service, US, Peterson Foundation, Treasury, Monetary, Financial, greenback Locations: Washington, China

☆ The Democratic Taboo
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Adam Nagourney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Democratic Party has had no shortage of argument and dissent over the years. Internal battles and backbiting are part of what it means to be a modern-day Democrat. This has played out on platforms large and small, most recently after Jon Stewart, on his return to his former Comedy Central show after a nine-year hiatus, mocked the “objectively old” President Biden. “Please make it another nine years,” Keith Olbermann, the former MSNBC host, said on X. Prominent Democratic strategists like David Axelrod and James Carville who criticize Biden are facing a barrage of pushback on social media and from the White House — and sometimes, reportedly, from Biden himself.

Persons: Biden —, Jon Stewart, Biden, “, ” Keith Olbermann, David Axelrod, James Carville, Donald Trump Organizations: Democratic Party, Comedy Central, MSNBC

☆ Home Prices May Be Sky-High, but America Is Not in a Housing Bubble
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The housing market, they claimed, was a bubble destined to burst. I’ve spent the past few years asking experts a simple question: Has the housing market reached bubble territory? AdvertisementFor a time, it seemed like the housing market was doing a speedrun through Simonsen’s checklist. And even if the economy does take a turn, a run-of-the-mill recession probably wouldn’t be enough to topple the housing market. The housing market is far from balanced, but we’re at least heading in that direction.

Persons: doomsayers, I’ve, Redfin, you’ve, you’ll, Mike Simonsen, megalandlords, ”, Ian Shepherdson, Goldman Sachs, Jerome Powell, Powell, Rick Palacios Jr, John Burns, ” doomsayers, might’ve, It’s, it’s, Logan Mohtashami, don’t, US homebuilders, “ It’s, ” Mohtashami, Selma Hepp, Fannie Mae, Palacios, ” Palacios, Mohtashami Organizations: Altos Research, Wall, John, John Burns Research, Consulting, Mortgage Bankers Association, Federal Reserve Bank of New, Federal Housing Finance Agency Locations: Charlotte, North Carolina, Austin, Las Vegas, Miami, Boise , Idaho, Dallas, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, US

☆ AI's most doomsaying godfather sure would like you to believe his invention is godlike
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

However, overemphasizing the dangers of AI risks paralyzing debate at a pivotal moment. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Advertisement"I'm not scared of A.I.," LeCun told the magazine. While Hinton and Meta's chief AI scientist LeCun have butted heads, fellow collaborator and third AI godfather Yoshua Bengio has stressed that this unknown is the real issue.

Persons: what's, Geoffrey Hinton, —, Hinton, Yan LeCun, Turing, LeCun, Yoshua Bengio, Yann, Joshua Rothman, it's Organizations: Service, Big Tech, Google, Yorker Locations: Hinton, Canadian

☆ Marc Andreessen is getting raked over the coals for calling social responsibility the 'enemy'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

VC Marc Andreessen wrote a lengthy missive this week, titled "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto." AdvertisementAdvertisementIt wouldn't be a Marc Andreessen essay if the internet didn't lose its mind over it. Rather, technology, he wrote, can solve for "any material problem" under the sun and herald a new era of "abundance for everyone." The backlash to Andreessen's essay was swift. He runs one of the biggest venture capital firms by assets and perceived importance.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, —, Kara Swisher, Andreessen, Ben Collins, Andreessen's missive, Dorothea Baur, Cameron Moll, he's, Gary Marcus, Marcus, what's, Aravind Srinivas, A16z, Collins, Andreessen Horowitz, Del, Johnson Organizations: Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook, Backstage Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Venture Locations: Silicon Valley, Del Johnson, Silicon

☆ Opinion | The Faustian Bargain of Reducing Air Pollution
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

This summer of extremes has been a summer of mystery, debate and even some confusion for climate scientists, who’ve been watching the news with the rest of us and asking, What, exactly, is going on? Is it just baseline global warming, trending upward, that explains the extreme temperatures on land and over sea? The arrival of a planet-warming El Niño in the Pacific? And when considering off-the-charts sea-surface temperatures, what role is being played by recent regulations designed to significantly reduce the sulfur emissions of ships, since less pollution in the air means more heat making its way to the water below? And almost certainly, the sulfur effect has been larger locally, along particular shipping routes in the world’s oceans, where some especially striking anomalies have been observed.

Persons: who’ve, what’s, alarmists, Robert Rohde Organizations: Berkeley Locations: Tonga, South, Phoenix

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