Author: News Room
China has seized outsized market share in industries from textiles to solar panels, accomplished a lock on rare earth minerals, and threatens to become an export juggernaut in electric vehicles through protectionist industrial policies. U.S. President Joe Biden has responded with the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. These policies aim to level the playing field in batteries, EVs, semiconductors and other cutting-edge industries. European politicians decry these and other U.S. industrial policies as dangerous and the end of the liberal trade order. Progressive business leaders, politicians and intellectuals also rail against threats to the liberal international economic system, They blame populists and nationalists for the situation. That’s dead wrong. Biden may…
If you’ve been holding off on home improvements, a new law signed last year and in effect as of Jan. 1, 2023, may provide a fresh incentive. The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, includes tax credits and rebates for homeowners who make energy-saving updates to their homes. Credits for improvements like new solar panels, windows, doors and air conditioners are available now, while rebates for larger energy-efficient updates are expected to become available later this year or next year. Here’s what to know about these perks, plus tips to plan your projects.Tax credits for smaller updates The IRA includes tax…
Almost 90% of U.S. adults have heard something about cryptocurrencies, but most aren’t confident that ways to invest, trade, or use it are reliable and safe, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Monday. The survey was conducted between March 13-19, around the time that Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank, both crypto-friendly banks, collapsed or were being wound down. It was also around the time that bitcoin BTCUSD, +3.49% prices had soared. Crypto has seen a rough several months, from multiple corporate bankruptcies like the FTX crypto exchange, to lawsuits against crypto giants like Binance, and frequent regulatory threats…
U.S. stocks opened down Monday following the three-day holiday weekend, with investors resuming trade after U.S. stock exchanges closed for Good Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.30% fell 0.3% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.10% fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.03% dropped 0.9%, according to FactSet data, at last check. Investors had the weekend to digest the jobs report that landed on Good Friday, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics saying that day that the U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in March while the unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% from 3.6%…
First, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors in rural northern California voted to cancel its contract with Dominion Voting Systems, citing public distrust of the company’s machines. Then, the supervisors agreed to shift to hand-counting ballots in future elections after receiving written assurance from one of the most vocal 2020 election deniers – MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell – that he would provide “financial and legal” resources to the county if it faced “pushback” over the move. The decision by a majority of supervisors in this deeply conservative county to end the Dominion contract – years before its expiration date and…
China proposed new checks on artificial intelligence chatbots on Tuesday, in an effort to control how its tech industry rolls out generative AI models, as popularised by ChatGPT in the US. Hours after tech giant Alibaba followed its peers SenseTime and Baidu with the launch of a ChatGPT-like bot, China’s powerful internet regulator released draft measures likely to slow Alibaba’s rollout, citing chatbots’ potential for “social mobilisation”. The Cyberspace Administration of China proposals said providers would have to submit their products for security reviews before their public release and it would set up a database to register them. The regulator…
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The city of Hong Kong is continuing its push for Web3 and crypto adoption, despite volatility in the market and regulatory crackdowns elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan has confirmed.In a blog post published on the Financial Secretary’s official website on Sunday, Chan said that that Web3 – referred to as “the digital economy and the third -generation Internet” – has been identified as one of three major focus areas for promoting high-quality development in Hong Kong.Despite recent market volatility, Hong Kong’s financial chief said he remains optimistic about the future of Web3. He added that now is a…
Alibaba showed off its answer to the ChatGPT craze on Tuesday, demonstrating new software that it plans to eventually roll out across all its platforms. The Chinese tech giant unveiled Tongyi Qianwen, a large language model that will be embedded in its Tmall Genie smart speakers and workplace messaging platform DingTalk. It was trained on vast troves of data in order to generate compelling responses to users’ prompts. The technology will initially be integrated into those two products and eventually added to all Alibaba (BABA) applications, from e-commerce to mapping services, according to the company. Group CEO Daniel Zhang, who…
Life expectancy in the U.S. is between three and five years lower than the average in other high-income countries — and the gap comes in part from misinformation, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said.”It’s looking worse, not better, over the last several years,” Califf told CNBC in an interview Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.It’s not just the Covid pandemic contributing to the decline, he said, pointing out the gap with peer nations is widening. Califf said a new factor has joined the list of known causes of life-expectancy disparities like race, ethnicity, income…
