DeepSeek’s latest AI models showed that shared research allowed a Chinese company to leapfrog better-resourced U.S. teams, writes Christopher Mims. The situation has intensified discussions about AI development: Some U.S. investors argue the technology should be developed in secret for national security purposes, while most engineers who build AI reject that
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Almost half of Americans, and 65% of Gen Zers, said they plan to drink less alcohol in 2025, according to a survey by research firm NCSolutions.
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Large firms like Amazon and Microsoft could spend up to $3 trillion by 2030 to build and operate data centers for their businesses, according to BlackRock Investment Institute.
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Auto stocks suffered notable premarket declines, with GM falling more than 6% premarket. Tesla shares dropped 3% ahead of the open. The auto industry is potentially the most vulnerable sector to the 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports. Global auto stocks slid from Frankfurt to Tokyo.
Constellation Brands fell about 6% premarket.
"The postwar bipartisan consensus that the U.S. prospers by fostering cooperation and integration with allies and neighbors is gone." (wsj)
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Social Security in the Wild
Social Security is and always has been an unworkable scheme rapidly approaching collapse. Economists point out that something has to give if the program is to avoid catastrophe, and so do the trustees who run Social Security.
This month, Pew Research found "large majorities of Trump (77%) and Harris supporters (83%) opposed any reductions in the Social Security program." In February, a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey revealed that 66 percent of Americans agree Social Security needs reforming, but "69 percent of respondents across all age groups opposed cutting benefits to those on Social Security, while 52 percent were against raising the retirement age and 44 percent opposed raising taxes on workers' income."
The victims of the scheme are not acting like victims but rather like co-conspirators.
"Thirty-seven percent of nonretirees between the ages of 30 and 49 believe they will get Social Security benefits, while 61% do not," Gallup noted last year.
Until 2010, Americans paid more in Social Security taxes than the program paid out in benefits. The extra money wasn't saved but passed on to be spent by the rest of the federal government in return for IOUs.
That is, there is no "trust fund."
That point passed as the ratio of workers to retirees dropped and seems unlikely to shift back given the country's declining birth rate and aging population. That means the difference between revenues and expenditures is now made up, as it is across the rest of the federal government, by borrowing. As Social Security cashes in those IOUs, the Treasury will borrow an estimated $4.1 trillion plus interest to fund the program between now and 2033. "It's like borrowing money to pay off credit cards," Cato's Boccia notes.
The mendacity and incompetence of the last four years are not enough to explain this. Rather, this is a long-term project. It's as if three blind men and an elephant are piloting the ship of state.
"Thirty-seven percent of nonretirees between the ages of 30 and 49 believe they will get Social Security benefits, while 61% do not," Gallup noted last year.
Until 2010, Americans paid more in Social Security taxes than the program paid out in benefits. The extra money wasn't saved but passed on to be spent by the rest of the federal government in return for IOUs.
That is, there is no "trust fund."
That point passed as the ratio of workers to retirees dropped and seems unlikely to shift back given the country's declining birth rate and aging population. That means the difference between revenues and expenditures is now made up, as it is across the rest of the federal government, by borrowing. As Social Security cashes in those IOUs, the Treasury will borrow an estimated $4.1 trillion plus interest to fund the program between now and 2033. "It's like borrowing money to pay off credit cards," Cato's Boccia notes.
The mendacity and incompetence of the last four years are not enough to explain this. Rather, this is a long-term project. It's as if three blind men and an elephant are piloting the ship of state.
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