14 results

• MoneyInflation can fall. The cost-of-living crisis can keep going.When inflation slows, prices usually do not return to where they started. New IMF research says repeated food and energy shocks can also change what households expect about future inflation and push more people into poverty.
• MoneyWeight-loss drugs are becoming a snack-company problem.PepsiCo is already fighting inflation, weak snack volumes and investor pressure. GLP-1 drugs add a more structural question: what happens to a food business built around frequent snacking when some customers feel less hungry?
• ExplainedHow can a medicine change what supermarkets sell?GLP-1 medicines reduce appetite and food intake for many users. At population scale, that can alter portion sizes, snacking frequency and the types of foods companies choose to develop, even though the medicines are not food products themselves.
• MoneyA few narrow stretches of water can still move the price of almost everything.Energy companies are reconsidering a just-in-time export system after disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb. The lesson is bigger than oil: global supply chains can be efficient and still be fragile.
• ExplainedCountries keep emergency oil underground for moments exactly like this.The IEA is discussing another coordinated release of oil and diesel stocks as energy markets face supply disruptions. Strategic reserves exist to buy time during severe shortages, not to make fuel permanently cheap.
• MoneyWhy is cheap long-haul flying so hard to make profitable?Norse Atlantic is flying with reduced capacity as jet-fuel prices squeeze its economics. The problem is broader than one airline: long-haul flying combines expensive aircraft, volatile fuel, thin margins and fewer ways to recover when something goes wrong.
• ExplainedOne AI search can secretly become ten searches. That is query fan-out.AI search systems can break one complicated question into several related searches, retrieve evidence for each and then synthesize the result. Google calls this query fan-out, and it changes how content can be discovered.
• TechGoogle just signed for 3.6 gigawatts of power. AI is turning tech companies into energy companies.Google’s new Constellation Energy agreement covers 3,590 MW of power, including 890 MW of added nuclear capacity. The deal shows how AI competition is moving from chips and models into electricity, grids and long-term energy contracts.
• ExplainedWhy do AI data centers use so much electricity?AI computing concentrates thousands of power-hungry chips in facilities that run continuously. The electricity demand comes from computation, memory, networking, cooling and the simple fact that useful AI services have to answer requests all day.
• PeopleUnemployment can be low while the job market still feels terrible.The U.S. is approaching the 2026 midterms with unemployment around levels economists call full employment, yet hiring is slower, job switching is weaker and many workers feel insecure. The unemployment rate only measures one part of labor-market health.
• MoneyRich people can get richer while luxury brands still sell less.Citi credit-card data showed U.S. luxury purchases down 6% year over year in September, even as top-end wealth remained resilient. The reason is that wealth, confidence, value perception and willingness to spend are not the same thing.
• MoneyBrazil voted on Sunday. Markets voted on Monday.Flávio Bolsonaro led Brazil’s first-round presidential vote 47% to 45% over Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The next trading session, Brazilian stocks surged. The useful question is not which candidate markets ‘like’. It is which policy probabilities investors suddenly changed.
• MoneyA bond yield just hit a 24-year high. Why should anyone outside Wall Street care?The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield briefly touched 5.34%, its highest level since 2002. That number lives in the bond market, but its effects reach mortgages, business loans, government budgets and the price investors put on almost everything else.
• NowBrazil is choosing a president. It is also choosing how it deals with the world.Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible to vote in a polarized presidential election between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. The contest is domestic, but the consequences reach Washington, Beijing and the future of Latin America’s largest economy.