Author Min Jin Lee

‘I thought, if I’m going to die, I’m going to write a book first’: Pachinko author Min Jin Lee
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/oct/03/i-thought-if-im-going-to-die-im-going-to-write-a-book-first-pachinko-author-min-jin-lee

Min Jin Lee was Underestimated for Half Her Life. Then She Started to Write.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/magazine/min-jin-lee-american-hagwon.html
A torch bearer for the great 19th-century tradition of social realism, she’s become one of the most important novelists of her generation.
 
Min Jin Lee on “American Hagwon,” Her First Novel After the Phenomenon of “Pachinko”
https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/min-jin-lee-on-american-hagwon-her-first-novel-after-the-phenomenon-of-pachinko

Superrich versus the Merely Rich

The Gap Between the Rich and the Very, Very Rich Is Getting Wider
https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-gap-between-the-rich-and-the-very-very-rich-is-getting-wider-5f76ab6c
The 0.1% are worth $28 trillion, or about 15% of the nation’s total wealth. The average wealth for a household in this group is over $200 million. 

The only billionaires making money this year are in tech
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/only-billionaires-making-money-tech-103000632.html

Keynes and AI

What Would This Long-Dead Economist Say About A.I.? He (Sort of) Told Us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/opinion/john-maynard-keynes-ai-economist.html

Development Accounting

David Lagakos and Todd Schoellman, "Accounting for Cross-Country Income Differences Revisited," NBER Working Paper 35826 (2026). https://doi.org/10.3386/w35826.
Development accounting is the search for proximate sources of cross-country income differences. This article describes how knowledge in this field has evolved over the two decades since the influential work of Caselli (2005). There have been large advances in the measurement of production inputs (labor, physical capital, and human capital). These advances have raised the estimated contribution of inputs, mostly human capital, in development accounting. Our preferred estimate is that inputs account for 55–70 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) per worker differences, versus 30 percent using the classic specification. The literature has also made progress in moving away from Cobb-Douglas production functions and measuring factors such as management quality that were previously bundled into total factor productivity (TFP). Our review highlights the new implications of these advances, areas where future research would be beneficial, and the limitations of development accounting. 

Carnegie Mellon University - Miami

Ken Griffin Is Making Largest Donation to Higher Education in U.S. History
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/ken-griffin-is-making-the-largest-donation-to-higher-education-in-u-s-history-aea22b0a
The Citadel CEO is donating $2 billion to start a Carnegie Mellon University campus in Miami, part of the largest-ever individual gift toward higher education.
 
Hedge Fund Executive Gives $3 Billion to Carnegie Mellon in Largest-Ever Gift
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/us/3-billion-donation-carnegie-mellon-largest-university-gift.html
The donation by Kenneth Griffin, intended mostly to help build a campus in Miami, was the biggest single gift in the history of U.S. higher education. 

Globalization and Capital Taxation

Bachas, Pierre, Matthew Fisher-Post, Anders Jensen, and Gabriel Zucman. 2026. "Globalization, Capital Taxation, and Development: Evidence from a Macrohistorical Database." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 18 (4): 509–49.
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/pdf/doi/10.1257/app.20240746
This paper builds and analyzes a new global macrohistorical database of effective tax rates on capital and labor in 154 countries. We establish a new stylized fact: While effective capital tax rates fell in developed countries between 1965 and 2018, they rose in developing countries after 1990. Multiple country-, sector-, and firm-level research designs suggest that trade openness contributed to this rise by increasing the share of output produced in corporations and larger firms, where effective capital taxation is higher. In contrast to a common view, globalization appears in many countries to have supported governments' ability to tax capital. 

Is Real Estate a Good Inflation Hedge?

Real Estate Is Not an Inflation Hedge. Pricing Power Is.
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/real-estate-is-not-an-inflation-hedge--pricing-power-is-88597.html
The real inflation hedge is pricing power: the ability to raise rents as costs rise without losing occupancy. 

Related:

Thinking about buying stocks instead of a home as mortgage rates top 7%? The S&P 500 has blown away the housing market over the past decade.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/thinking-buying-stocks-instead-home-202006261.html

Oversupply of PhDs

The Ph.D. Job Crisis Is a Needed Market Correction
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-ph-d-job-crisis-is-a-needed-market-correction-cfef32c9
Universities will produce fewer underemployed, overcredentialed and aggrieved young people. 

Why young academics are leaving academia
https://www.ft.com/content/8097a49b-32f9-455c-890c-921d3b419f59
As more PhD holders compete for limited university jobs, many are reconsidering the appeal of industry careers. 

The Consequences of Bad Economic Policies

The Moves That Backfired on Trump and Drove Interest Rates and Inflation Higher
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trump-economy-inflation-jobs-724e4da8
The president’s own agenda has helped undermine promises to fix the economy and get the deficit under control.
 
Trump’s Tariffs Push Canadian Companies to Look Past American Links
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/business/trump-tariffs-canada-diversify.html
Shaken by tariffs and threats from the Trump administration, Canadian businesses are seeking markets and suppliers beyond the U.S. 

AI and the Legal System

Is A.I. Above the Law?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/28/is-ai-above-the-law
Our legal system isn’t ready for machines that act on their own. 

Does Claude Have Rights?
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/anthropic-training-claude-to-believe-it-may-have-rights-by-mustafa-suleyman-2026-09
Given the many differences between brains and LLMs, claiming that an AI is or might be conscious requires a high bar of evidence. But Anthropic’s constitution for Claude brushes that caveat aside, suggesting that we attribute sentience to non-biological beings. 

Measuring Inflation

How the Fed should measure inflation
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/09/24/how-the-fed-should-measure-inflation
Pinning down the underlying rate may be harder than Kevin Warsh thinks. 

Future of Digital Finance

The future of digital finance rests on public money, not private
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/09/21/the-future-of-digital-finance-rests-on-public-money-not-private
Central banks will be needed to maintain trust and ensure interoperability, argues Piero Cipollone. 

America and the Middle East

The Death of the Old Middle East—and the Dangerous New World Replacing It
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/simon-sebag-montefiore-middle-east-alliances-cauldron-1d35b8cf
Simon Sebag-Montefiore on how traditional rivalries are receding as regional conflicts lead to powerful new alliances.

America is stepping back from a region it never managed to remake
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2026/09/23/america-is-stepping-back-from-a-region-it-never-managed-to-remake
It is giving up the job of running the Middle East. 

A Big (and Risky) Bet on AI

The AI Build-Out Is Becoming the Biggest Economic Bet in U.S. History
https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-ai-build-out-is-becoming-the-biggest-economic-bet-in-u-s-history-c60716dd
Data-center spending is greater than that for canals, railroads and grid combined—creating jobs and stock-market wealth, while boosting inflation and crowding out housing.
 
We're All AI Investors Now, And That's Risky
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/we-re-all-ai-investors-now--and-that-s-risky-88546.html
Like it or not, we are all betting on AI taking over the economy. In the last 40 years, the U.S. has become a nation of stock investors. On the whole, it has made Americans rich. Now the stock market is soaring on the hopes that AI will make everyone more productive—and if that doesn’t work out, we all may learn the definition of a bad tail risk. 

What Happens if the A.I. Bubble Bursts
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/opinion/ai-bubble-banking-crisis-too-big-to-fail.html

Related:

The AI bubble could be worse than the dot-com bust by Vivekanand Jayakumar, The Hill - 06/16/26
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/5925202-tech-bubble-ai-driven-growth/

Time to Buy Bonds?

A Perfect Storm Is Raging in the Bond Market
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/a-perfect-storm-is-raging-in-the-bond-market-43d9b44b
The benchmark Treasury yield jumped above 5.1%, posting its biggest one-day rise in more than a year.
 
It’s a Good Time to Buy Bonds
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/its-a-good-time-to-buy-bonds-94e1c93e 

The Problem Is Where Interest Rates May Go, Not Where They Are Now
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/business/interest-rates-economy-markets-inflation-mortgages.html
History shows that the markets and the economy flourished when rates were even higher than today’s. But, our columnist notes, those times didn’t last.

Demise of the Rules-based Order

How to Survive in a World Without Rules
https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/09/hal-brands-rules-based-order-great-power-politics-geopolitics/
Hal Brands:
Not so long ago, it seemed that the world was becoming more civilized. The end of the Cold War was supposed to bring the triumph of the rules-based order. Enlightened norms and cooperation, buttressed by a broad-minded superpower, would supplant anarchic patterns of the past. It was an inspiring vision—and, alas, an illusion.
Now, all around the world, rules are in retreat. Aggression and conquest are surging; economic coercion and predation are rampant. Respect for international law and organizations is cratering; arms control is in decline. Great powers are reviving dreams of empire; the United States is tempted to seek narrow national aggrandizement at the cost of world order. 

Meta's Muse

Meta’s New AI Agent Is an Instant Hit—and the Backlash Has Already Begun
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-agent-muse-reactions-5bf236af
Amazon blocked the Muse app from shopping on its site, and privacy and security concerns are mounting.
 
Meta’s Muse Comes for Financial Stocks
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/metas-muse-comes-for-financial-stocks-17bdf11a
The rapid adoption of the new artificial-intelligence agent threatens to disrupt wealth managers, brokerages and insurers. 

I Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown Away
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/technology/meta-muse-ai-agent.html

I Tried Meta’s Muse AI Agent. It’s Helpful and Scary at the Same Time.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/meta-muse-ai-agent-review-ab956101
The more data you hand over, the more this talented personal assistant can do for you.

College versus Technical School

‘Skills nobody can take’: Meet a 20-year-old with a 4.5 GPA who skipped college for technical school to land an ‘AI-proof’ career
https://finance.yahoo.com/small-business/articles/skills-nobody-meet-20-old-071200562.html 

India's Southern Tech Capitals

Bloomberg Wall Street Week Reports:
Bangalore: Can India’s IT Capital Survive Its Own Success?
https://youtu.be/dEe4A3O9OmI 
Why India’s Big Tech Companies Are Betting on Hyderabad
https://youtu.be/zDLi0cQKxEU 

American Millionaires

The Wealthiest—and Stealthiest—Class in America
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/the-everywhere-millionaire-owen-zidar-and-eric-zwick-book-review
America’s everywhere millionaires built fortunes from hot dogs, car dealerships, medical practices, and convenience stores. Then they learned how to protect them.
 
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
https://www.everywheremillionaire.com 

Related:
https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/2026/10/pass-through-corporate-tax/688918/

Can US Economy Survive Higher Rates?

See the 10-Year Treasury Yield’s Wild Ride on the Road to 5%
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/see-the-10-year-treasury-yields-wild-ride-on-the-road-to-5-22e4bbc2
A pandemic, wars and government deficits have reshaped the bond market since the start of the decade.
 
The Silver Lining in Soaring Interest Rates: The Economy Can Handle Them
https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/the-silver-lining-in-soaring-interest-rates-the-economy-can-handle-them-842e29ff
Economies around the world are showing surprising resilience to higher central bank-interest rates and government bond yields. 

Nostalgia and Lost Pride

The Fuel Europe’s Far Right Feeds On: Nostalgia and Lost Pride
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/world/europe/germany-afd-far-right.html
The populist emphasis on national identity, rather than on the sins of the past, finds a deep response in voters adrift in a world they no longer understand. 

Subtle Effects of AI in the Workplace

The Quiet Way A.I. Is Hitting the Work Force
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/business/ai-raises-hiring.html
Lower wage growth and slower hiring in some sectors may be the result of artificial intelligence, especially for younger workers. 

As Expected, Fed Hikes Rates

FOMC STATEMENT:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20260916a.htm
The Federal Open Market Committee approved the following statement for release by a 12 – 0 vote:
The Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 percentage point to 3-3/4 to 4 percent, in support of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate. The Committee is continuing its policy of maintaining ample reserves in the banking system.
Economic activity is expanding at a solid pace. While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient. Productivity growth is strong, and capital investment is robust. Job gains have kept pace with the workforce, and the unemployment rate has changed little.
Inflation remains elevated. Today's policy action will support a timelier return to the Committee's 2 percent goal. The Committee will deliver price stability. 

Setting Prices in the Real World

American Businesses Have No Idea How to Set Prices Right Now
https://www.wsj.com/business/american-businesses-have-no-idea-how-to-set-prices-right-now-061274e0
Businesses of all stripes are struggling to predict how long high energy costs will last. 

US - A Contributor to Economic Instability

The World Economy Is Becoming Wary of the U.S.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/business/trump-debt-sanctions-global-economy.html
America’s position of global economic stability is starting to look shakier as the Trump administration piles on debt and doubles down on sanctions.
 
E.U. Offers to Make Canada ‘Associate Member’ as U.S. Ties Weaken for Both
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/world/europe/eu-canada-associate-member.html
Canada and the European Union have been confronting an increasingly challenging relationship with the United States under President Trump. 

Declining Education Standards - Role of Policymakers

New York Dumbs Down Its Graduates
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/new-york-regents-exams-high-school-graduates-255bf7f9
The Board of Regents nixes its requirement to pass a graduation exam. 

Cognitive Offloading

An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/us/universities-ai-warnings-enthusiasm.html
As A.I. upends education, university leaders have been all over the map about how to respond. It can be very confusing for students. 

Will A.I. Make Your Brain Lazy? Here’s What the New Research Actually Shows.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/29/magazine/ai-chatbots-brain-development-study.html
We’re starting to learn more about how the technology can change us. 

Europe's Immigration Concerns

There’s a Reason Europe Is So Obsessed with Immigration
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/opinion/europe-immigration-ceuta-far-right.html Immigration has become a prism through which all the continent’s ills are viewed. 

Benchmark 10-Year Treasury Yield

What Comes Next, Now that the 10-Year Treasury Yield Has Crossed 5%?
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/what-comes-next-now-that-the-10-year-treasury-yield-has-crossed-5-c3bd8b05
The key borrowing benchmark is either bumping along a post-financial crisis high, or stepping into a new era of higher rates.

10-Year Treasury Yield Touches 5%, Highest Level in Years
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/business/10-year-treasury-yield-5-percent.html
One of the world’s most important interest rates hit a level recorded only once since the global financial crisis, as investors continued to rebuff the Trump administration’s efforts to sway the bond market.
 
A 5% Treasury Yield Raises New Risks for Markets, Economy
https://www.fa-mag.com/news/a-5--treasury-yield-raises-new-risks-for-markets--economy-88451.html
 
Stocks are in a late-stage bubble and poised to crash 21% next year, while Treasury yields above 5% will signal a new era of tight money, analysts say
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/stocks-stage-bubble-poised-crash-220620239.html
 
A Guide to Owning Bonds When They Are Selling Off
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/a-guide-to-owning-bonds-when-they-are-selling-off-be8e0a2b 

US Foreign Policy and Political Corruption

Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/09/21/jared-kushners-dollar-diplomacy
Donald Trump’s son-in-law represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. 

MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/10/maga-foreign-policy/688352/
Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.

AI Safety Concerns

The Liftoff Scenario That Terrifies A.I. Doomsayers
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/science/ai-recursive-self-improvement.html
“Recursive self-improvement” is the idea that artificial intelligence could learn to build and train itself, creating exponential new progress — and risk.

Can A.I. “Go Rogue”?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/can-ai-go-rogue
In the wake of turmoil at OpenAI and Anthropic, it’s become common to describe A.I. as a kind of person, hatching plans and pursuing desires. The truth is a little trickier.

How the Clash Between Money and Safety Created a Monumental Crisis for AI
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-anthropic-crisis-money-safety-847bc1d6
OpenAI and Anthropic, in heated competition with each other and China, are racing toward IPOs, even as they admit they could lose control of their bots.
 
We Need a Science of the AI Mind
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/we-need-a-science-of-the-ai-mind-5b1047e4
No, we aren’t doomed, but the models are advancing more quickly than our understanding of them. 

Singapore's Model for Limiting Political Corruption

Benchmarking and bonuses: why Singapore pays its politicians like bankers
https://www.ft.com/content/fa47c0db-18a6-45d6-b35d-75942a0daae8
The city-state has some of the best-paid ministers in the world. 

Populism and American Politics

Populist Republicans and Democratic Socialists Are Starting to Merge
https://www.wsj.com/politics/populist-republicans-and-democratic-socialists-are-starting-to-merge-d6f5917e
Call it the “Horseshoe party.” The extremes in both parties are starting to sound alike in their disdain for capitalism and centrism. 

Inflation and Price Levels

What Years of Inflation Have Done to American Prices
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/09/11/business/economy/inflation-us-prices-gas-food-tariffs.html
Nearly every category of product costs more than it would have had prepandemic trends continued. And many product prices are still rising faster than they were before. 

Sticky Wage Norms and the Real Wage Cost of Unexpected Inflation
https://www.nber.org/papers/w35624
We use a sample of administrative payroll data covering a large and nationally representative share of U.S. workers to study how wages adjusted during the recent inflation period. Most firms apply a single modal annual nominal wage increase to the majority of their workers, and these firm-level norms changed little during the recent period of unexpected inflation. As a result, nominal wages did not keep pace with prices for a large share of workers who stayed at their firms. Forty-three percent of workers continuously employed at the same firm over the four years spanning 2021–2024 experienced a real wage decline, with a mean loss of roughly nine percent among those who fell behind. Workers could escape sticky wage norms by changing employers — job-changers’ wages rose nearly one-for-one with inflation — but switching was too infrequent to matter for most. Even accounting for job-changers, 37 percent of all workers saw real wages decline over the 4-year period. Indexing firms’ modal raises one-for-one to inflation would have closed roughly 40 percent of the resulting shortfall relative to prepandemic trend. Drawing on cross-country evidence from Belgium, whose wages are automatically indexed to inflation, we show that incomplete wage indexation, rather than inflation itself, helps explain the persistence of depressed consumer sentiment during the 2021–2024 period.

Six Charts That Explain How Americans Really Feel About the Economy
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/six-charts-that-explain-how-americans-really-feel-about-the-economy-2243d7da
Official data shows steady growth and low unemployment, but misses how rising costs have left many Americans behind. 

How Energy Is Driving Inflation—and How It’s Not
https://www.wsj.com/economy/how-energy-is-driving-inflationand-how-its-not-50560f6e
As diesel crosses $6, the risk is building that soaring energy costs will start to hurt far beyond gas pumps.

Labor Force Participation Rates in Europe

On Europe’s economy, let’s ditch the lazy stereotypes
https://www.ft.com/content/362b3139-b0de-42f1-83db-67d4572a66ce
Despite careful, consistent labor market reforms, the continent has not lived down to its image as work-shy. 

Choosing a College Major in the AI Era

Choosing these AI-exposed college majors could dent your job prospects — and lower your pay
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/choosing-these-ai-exposed-college-majors-could-dent-your-job-prospects-and-lower-your-pay-b80576cb
‘AI is becoming a lens they use to judge whether a major is a safe bet.’

Want to Succeed in an AI World? Study Anthropology
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/want-to-succeed-in-an-ai-world-study-anthropology-cbb2d368
College students and workers alike are finding a new set of skills is needed for a rapidly changing workplace. 

The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/business/philosophy-majors-ai-jobs.html
A.I. labs are hiring contrarian, chin-stroking, finger-steepling sages. Who’s underemployed now? 

PISA Test Scores Highlight an Alarming Trend

Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/09/10/plunging-test-scores-are-a-slow-moving-catastrophe
Machines are getting brighter. Teens are getting dimmer. Schools must act now.
 
Are teenagers growing dimmer?
https://www.economist.com/international/2026/09/08/are-teenagers-growing-dimmer
The latest global school tests reveal shocking new declines. 

PISA 2025: Students’ reading and mathematics performance declined sharply across the OECD
https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2026/09/pisa-2025-students-reading-and-mathematics-performance-declined-sharply-across-the-oecd.html

U.S. Reading Scores Plummet on Global Exam
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/us/us-reading-test-scores-pisa.html
Students in Singapore and parts of China had the highest scores on the test known as PISA. Scores for American students were near a 25-year low.

PISA 2025 Report
https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2026/09/pisa-2025-results-volume-i_5265bfb1/73451bc5-en.pdf 

How to teach the next generation in the era of AI
https://www.ft.com/content/bb42e8fa-aa7e-4410-9f7b-42cd6115d8fb
The Pisa results sound the alarm on the disastrous impact of tech on our basic skills.

Backlash Against Big Tech

Big Tech Fooled America Once. The Second Time’s Not Going So Well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/opinion/ai-big-tech-america-politics.html

Surging Bond Yields

How to Make Sense of Mayhem in the Bond Market 
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/business/bond-market-interest-rates.html

The Unrelenting Bond Selloff Puts the 10-Year Yield on the Cusp of 5%
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/the-unrelenting-bond-selloff-puts-the-10-year-yield-on-the-cusp-of-5-78bfb4db
Rising borrowing costs threaten to disrupt the stock market and slow the economy. 

Why Higher Bond Yields Can Be ‘a Great Thing’
https://www.morningstar.com/bonds/why-higher-bond-yields-can-be-great-thing
The bond market selloff has rattled Wall Street, but falling bond prices mean more income for investors and a cushion against price declines.

The AI Millionaires

More Money Than They Ever Imagined—and No Clue How to Spend It
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-tech-anthropic-openai-ipo-0a9da59e 

Treasury versus the Bond Market

Bond Market Rebuffs Treasury’s $6 Billion Plan to Reduce Borrowing Costs
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/business/economy/treasury-repurchase-bessent.html
 
Related:
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/10/bessent-bonds-buyback-treasury
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/sep/10/bond-market-higher-costs 

The Decline in the Labor Share of Income

US workers' share of GDP skids to fresh record low
https://www.reuters.com/business/us-workers-share-gdp-skids-fresh-record-low-2026-08-06/
 
Workers’ share of America’s income is at a record low before the AI boom even begins
https://fortune.com/2026/09/04/ai-productivity-labor-share/
Related: https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/don-t-think-floor-workers-073000433.html
 
The Post‑COVID Decline in the Labor Share
https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/06/the-post-covid-decline-in-the-labor-share/
 
Why Labor’s Share of Wealth Is Shrinking
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/opinion/labor-capitol-workers-income.html 

The Record Divide Between Corporate Profits and Worker Pay
https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/the-record-divide-between-corporate-profits-and-worker-pay-ea4c75bc
Labor’s share of economic output just hit an all-time low, while the profit share neared a record. It helps explain why consumers feel so glum. 

The Big Money in Today’s Economy Is Going to Capital, Not Labor 

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/capital-labor-wealth-economy-2fcf6c2f

Soaring profits and stocks funnel more of GDP toward companies, their top employees and shareholders. AI will intensify this trend.

Can productivity boom lift US workers' record low share of GDP? Unlikely
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/can-productivity-boom-lift-us-workers-record-low-share-gdp-unlikely-2026-02-11/

‘We deserve more’: US workers’ share of the pie dwindles

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/06/workers-income-labor-

 

“Perspectives on the Labor Share,” by Loukas Karabarbounis

https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.38.2.107

As of 2022, the share of US income accruing to labor is at its lowest level since the Great Depression. Updating previous studies with more recent observations, I document the continuing decline of the labor share for the United States, other countries, and various industries. I discuss how changes in technology and product, labor, and capital markets affect the trend of the labor share. I also examine its relationship with other macroeconomic trends, such as rising markups, higher concentration of economic activity, and globalization. I conclude by offering some perspectives on the economic and policy implications of the labor share decline.

BRICS at 20

The BRICS at 20
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/20-years-of-brics-has-reshaped-international-affairs-by-brahma-chellaney-2026-09
If the promise of the BRICS was to establish a monetary union, a single market, or a tightly integrated political alliance, it has not been fulfilled. But if it was to build a platform for emerging economies to cooperate while advancing their own strategic autonomy, the BRICS has exceeded expectations.

In a Club of Emerging Powers, China and India Vie for Influence
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/world/asia/china-india-brics-summit.html
China sees the BRICS group as a vehicle for challenging American power. India wants to keep the group broad enough to avoid choosing sides.

 
World’s biggest relationship? Xi and Modi look to rebuild ties for 2.8bn people
https://www.ft.com/content/6525cf15-0cf0-4fff-a3a4-298a41569d97
Brics summit expected to bring China’s leader to India for first time in seven years after cautious diplomacy to put bilateral relations back on track. 

BRICS on the Rise 
https://www.ft.com/content/303ff813-fa48-417d-a44e-387c9e649ddf

Related:
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/shifting-u-s-alliances-push-rivals-china-and-india-together-37c95b68

Deciphering the Stock Market

Institutional Investors Move Markets. Here’s How to Read Their Signs.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/investors-move-markets-read-signs-b0f2cc95
Tracking a stock’s price range and volume can offer clues on when to buy a stock that’s about to climb or bail on a stock that’s primed to fall. 

The Stock Market’s Breezy Summer Is Over. Investors Beware.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/the-stock-markets-breezy-summer-is-over-investors-beware-fb110133
The Fed and inflation are back in focus as investors face down an often bumpy stretch for markets.
 
Why Stocks Are Defying Gravity and What Could Bring Them Down
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/business/stock-market-interest-rates.html
Investors are focused on strong corporate earnings and A.I., while looking past the war in Iran. But rising interest rates are an increasing risk to the rally.

US Foreign Policy Blunders

Peru Shows the Limits of Washington’s Anti-China Push
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/world/americas/peru-trump-china-economy.html
 
Trump’s Neocolonialism Will Backfire
https://www.newyorker.com/news/global-notes/trumps-neocolonialism-will-backfire  
The President is touting his big Venezuelan oil deal, but his interventions abroad are stirring anger and having unintended consequences. 

China and Medical Research

Patients Are Flying to China for the Latest Cancer Treatment
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/patients-are-flying-to-china-for-the-latest-cancer-treatment-528659c3
Shanghai is emerging as a favored destination for patients from America and other rich countries who are seeking innovations in biotechnology. 

Rethinking the Value of a College Degree

Americans Without College Degrees Have One of the Best Job Markets in Years
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/americans-without-college-degrees-are-having-one-of-the-best-job-markets-in-years-5f37d00e
Unemployment among younger workers who didn’t go to college has rarely been lower in recent decades. It is the opposite story for college graduates.
 
The university degree is losing its luster
https://www.ft.com/content/54cf40cd-149f-40db-b603-21aecd5f66ec
 
China’s New Graduates, Facing a Dire Job Market, Must Also Contend with A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/world/asia/chinas-new-graduates-ai-challenges.html
A record 12.7 million young people are looking for jobs as the country embraces artificial intelligence — and as the technology begins to upend the work force.  

My take from Jan 2022:
Is the US higher education bubble about to burst?
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/590971-will-the-us-higher-education-bubble-finally-burst

Related:

The College Wage Premium in the Generative AI Era

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7364838

Abstract

After expanding for four decades, the U.S. college wage premium is experiencing a sustained contraction, dropping sharply from 0.626 in 2022 to 0.575 in 2026. Using Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group data through 2026, we show that standard market-clearing supply and demand accounting implies an unprecedented drop in relative demand for college labor-the first sustained negative relative demand growth in a series spanning back to 1914. Linking individual wage data to task-based generative AI exposure, we document that post-2022 wage growth slowed disproportionately in high-exposure occupations, which employ a disproportionate share of college graduates. By 2026, going from zero occupational AI exposure to full exposure had a negative effect on wages of -0.086. Combined with the college-non-college exposure gap, this mechanism accounts for roughly 28 percent of the total drop in the college wage premium from 2022 to 2026. While noncausal, these patterns indicate that task displacement in AI-exposed white-collar occupations plays a quantitatively meaningful role in the recent compression of the aggregate skill premium.

The Ultimate Safe Asset

Why are European countries moving their gold out of North America?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyn8q8gqxo 

AI Agents and Retail Investing

He’s Letting AI Agents Invest His Money. They Even Have Names.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ai-shift-turning-everyday-investors-into-mini-quant-funds-ebe4d45f
Americans are vibe-coding trading algorithms and handing over their stock portfolios to AI agents. Welcome to the world of the robot retail investor. 

Oil Prices and the 'Crack Spread'

The ‘Crack Spread’ Is Going to Make Your Life Unpleasant
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/19/opinion/gas-prices-crude-oil-diesel.html
Focusing on the price of crude is misleading, a bit like following the price of wheat when it’s bread that you’re actually buying. The gauge to watch is what’s called the crack spread — the difference between the cost of a barrel of crude and the prices of the refined products made from it. If you want to drill down, it’s often referred to as the 3-2-1 spread, which calculates prices when three barrels of crude are refined into two barrels of gasoline and one barrel of diesel, a typical ratio. (Cracking is the process of breaking large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones, which is what a refinery does.) 

Florida's Housing Market

Florida’s housing market goes into meltdown
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/09/02/floridas-housing-market-goes-into-meltdown/ 

August Jobs Report

August Jobs Report
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf 

The US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, more than double expectations
https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/04/economy/us-jobs-report-august
 
August's blowout jobs report was good news for blue-collar workers, while white-collar professionals fell behind
https://www.businessinsider.com/job-growth-losses-august-industries-labor-market-2026-9

The biggest August jobs beat in nearly 30 years may be less impressive than it looks

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/the-biggest-august-jobs-beat-in-nearly-30-years-may-be-less-impressive-than-it-looks-chart-of-the-day-114716694.html/

 

American Workers Have Slammed the Brakes on Switching Jobs

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/american-workers-have-slammed-the-brakes-on-switching-jobs-767c45d1

The country is adding about 80,000 jobs a month, an improvement from last year, but workers are still wary of job hopping.

Related:

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/august-jobs-report-unemployment-c9da2f0c

https://www.businessinsider.com/job-market-long-term-unemployment-hiring-slowdown-looking-for-work-2026-9

Climate Change - Past the Tipping Point?

The world may have less time than it thinks on climate change
https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2026/08/30/the-world-may-have-less-time-than-it-thinks-on-climate-change
If it is affecting circulation patterns that determine how and where anticyclones form, it could accelerate alarmingly, warns Tim Palmer. 

Norwegian SWF to Sell Treasuries

Norway’s Massive Oil Fund Proposes Selling Roughly $80 Billion in U.S. Treasurys
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/norways-oil-fund-proposes-cut-to-government-bond-holdings-d930893f
The manager of the $2.4 trillion sovereign-wealth fund recommended adding riskier debt in a bid to seek greater returns. 

Deciphering the State of the US Labor Market

Labor Market Mysteries
https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/market-insights/market-updates/notes-on-the-week-ahead/labor-market-mysteries/ 

AI Profitability - Show Me the Money

For all the talk of AI, few companies are quantifying gains
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/for-all-their-talk-about-ai-few-companies-are-quantifying-gains-122132208.html/ 

Corporate America Is Getting Hooked on Open-Source A.I.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/technology/open-source-ai-anthropic-openai.html
Companies like AT&T are increasingly using cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over expensive ones from Anthropic and OpenAI. 

Will anybody use AI as much as coders do?
https://www.economist.com/business/2026/08/30/will-anybody-use-ai-as-much-as-coders-do
The answer will have big implications for the investment boom.

Who is an Economist?

When is an economist not an economist?
https://www.ft.com/content/89f06927-5728-4e24-9a28-621869d03392
A fraught question that warrants reflection on who gets to be a member of the influential informal guild. 

Pricing New Cancer Drugs

A $480,000-a-Year Pill Reflects a New Normal for Cancer Drugs
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/business/pancreatic-cancer-drug-prices.html
Rasonque, the new pancreatic cancer treatment from Revolution Medicines, illustrates the huge inflation in cancer drug prices over the past two decades. 

Misguided Trade Policies Hurt Americans

Wondering How Nuts Trump’s Tariffs Are? Consider Aluminum.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/opinion/trump-aluminum-tariffs-canada.html 

The Metals Lobby’s Big Steal
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/u-s-canada-steel-aluminum-tariffs-8f7cabf1
Americans now pay 75% more for aluminum than the rest of the world, and 64% more for steel.

The A.I. Job Apocalypse Debate

CBS 60 Minutes Report on AI and Jobs
https://youtu.be/peNzGhlAeZw

Will A.I. Still Take Our Jobs?
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/will-ai-still-take-our-jobs  
The jobs apocalypse hasn’t arrived. Something else is happening instead.
 
Generative Artificial Intelligence, Productivity, and the Future of Work
https://economics.td.com/gen-ai-intelligence

The jobs apocalypse is postponed. An AI jobs boom is here
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/09/04/the-jobs-apocalypse-is-postponed-an-ai-jobs-boom-is-here
Initial effects of the technology on employment look positive.

Has the A.I. Job Apocalypse Been Postponed?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-financial-page/has-the-ai-job-apocalypse-been-postponed
So far, the proliferation of products such as Claude and ChatGPT hasn’t led to mass displacement of workers. But deployment is accelerating and economic pressures are rising.

Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence
https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publication/canaries-in-the-coal-mine-six-facts-about-the-recent-employment-effects-of-artificial-intelligence/

AI hits college graduates in the heart of America’s data center boom
https://www.ft.com/content/9334212a-3cc4-426c-9cbe-57cb48033603
Research shows job postings in Texas have dropped for AI-exposed occupations.
 
Job postings show early signs of AI automation impact
https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2026/0901 

Related:

The College Wage Premium in the Generative AI Era

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7364838

Abstract

After expanding for four decades, the U.S. college wage premium is experiencing a sustained contraction, dropping sharply from 0.626 in 2022 to 0.575 in 2026. Using Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group data through 2026, we show that standard market-clearing supply and demand accounting implies an unprecedented drop in relative demand for college labor-the first sustained negative relative demand growth in a series spanning back to 1914. Linking individual wage data to task-based generative AI exposure, we document that post-2022 wage growth slowed disproportionately in high-exposure occupations, which employ a disproportionate share of college graduates. By 2026, going from zero occupational AI exposure to full exposure had a negative effect on wages of -0.086. Combined with the college-non-college exposure gap, this mechanism accounts for roughly 28 percent of the total drop in the college wage premium from 2022 to 2026. While noncausal, these patterns indicate that task displacement in AI-exposed white-collar occupations plays a quantitatively meaningful role in the recent compression of the aggregate skill premium.

Impact of Rising Bond Yields

What Does a Bond Selloff Mean for American Consumers?
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/what-does-a-bond-selloff-mean-for-american-consumers-236e4be6
A jittery Treasury market and the prospect of Fed rate increases risk making life more expensive for already cost-pressured Americans.
 
What Rising Global Bond Rates Mean for Your Money 
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/business/bond-rates-retirement-401k.html 

This chart shows exactly why investors should worry about rising yields — even if they don’t own any bonds
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-chart-shows-exactly-why-investors-should-worry-about-rising-yields-even-if-they-dont-own-any-bonds-075b93c0

AI Raises Deep Philosophical Questions

‘If you build something vastly smarter than you, it better be on your side’: can we stop AI from deceiving us?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/sep/01/if-you-build-something-vastly-smarter-than-you-it-better-be-on-your-side-can-we-stop-ai-from-deceiving-us
We are used to the idea that our fellow humans might intentionally mislead or manipulate us, but the idea that machines can now do the same is deeply unsettling. Researchers are racing to find solutions before it’s too late. 

The search for consciousness inside AI
https://www.economist.com/interactive/briefing/2026/08/20/the-search-for-consciousness-inside-llms
Scientists are trying to figure out whether algorithms could one day wake up and feel.

Global Bond Sell-Off

There Are Four Forces Pressuring Bonds: War Is No. 1
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/there-are-four-forces-pressuring-bonds-war-is-no-1-68d3ace9
Fiscal worries, a new Federal Reserve chairman and even the flood of AI bonds are helping drive the recent climb in yields.
 
The Bond Market Issues World Leaders a Failing Grade
https://www.wsj.com/economy/the-bond-market-issues-world-leaders-a-failing-grade-621cf4dc
Nothing in this week’s G-20 suggested an end to the deficits, inflation and geopolitical disruptions that are roiling investors.

America has a whopping debt. But Europe has the whopping debt problem
https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/09/03/america-has-a-whopping-debt-but-europe-has-the-whopping-debt-problem
The French-size problem at the heart of the EU.

Borrowing Isn’t the Bond Market’s Only Concern—Growth Is Too
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/borrowing-isnt-the-bond-markets-only-concerngrowth-is-too-91596036
Many governments look more prudent than the U.S. right now, but aging workforces and anemic growth mean debts look scary.

Global Bond Sell-Off Puts Investors on Edge
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/business/bond-yields-debt.html
Government borrowing costs are hitting multi-decade highs around the world, reflecting anxiety about debt levels, deficits and inflation.  

Bond Yields Around the World Soar in Challenge to Government Borrowing
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/bond-yields-around-the-world-soar-in-challenge-to-government-borrowing-c519c53f
The runup in interest rates has profound consequences for the global economy, heaping pressure on everyone from home buyers to governments.
 
How to understand the current puzzle in bonds and equities
https://www.ft.com/content/b189d31a-5e56-471e-91d1-c319aa68f174