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How are things going in the economy these days? Well, that depends if you’re playing the market or if you can’t afford to shop in one. If you’re investing, especially in the AI/tech driven market, things are going really well. Bad news doesn’t seem to register and good news is driving a boom. The economy looks a lot less bullish if you’re one of the 42 million or so Americans who rely on SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to feed your family. For these Americans, things are going from bad to worse. “Food banks across the United States were stretched thin even before the federal government shut down. Rising food prices had driven a growing number of people to their doors. Cuts to federal programs had left them with less to give. Now, that system — a last resort for tens of millions of hungry Americans — is anticipating an even greater surge in demand. With no end in sight to the nearly monthlong federal government shutdown, funding for the nation’s largest food assistance program, known as SNAP, will disappear at the start of November.” NYT (Gift Article): Food Banks Brace for Overwhelming Demand as SNAP Cutoff Looms. The government shutdown is driving this story at the moment. But, of course, there’s a broader question here. In supposedly economic good times, why are more than 40 million people in the world’s richest country unable to afford to eat? If there’s one story that underpins all other American stories, it’s the economic divide. It’s the divide that powers most of our other divides. And like those other divides, it’s only getting more divided.
+ The “knowledge economy is accelerating away from most people, not flattening out or becoming more accessible through AI. Rather than creating more opportunity for low-skilled workers, it’s removing opportunities they might otherwise have had and, at the same time, increasing the advantages of highly skilled workers. The bottom 60% effectively lose twice, while AI functions to amplify inequality rather than level the playing field.” Ray Dalio sees a vast American underclass increasingly dependent on the top 1%.
+ While a huge swath of America is wondering if food will be available in November, a small sliver of America is busy buying private jets... to save money. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Private Jets and Car Washes Are the Latest Tax Shields for the Ultrarich.
+ Meanwhile, if you can’t afford a vacation, an AI app will sell you pictures of one.
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Blade in America
“Ana paced on the sidewalk at 68th and Figueroa, her front teeth missing and an ostomy bag taped down under her hot pink lingerie. She surveyed the intersection in South Central Los Angeles, where preteens were hobbling in stilettos and G-strings. It was a Tuesday night this January, and Ana knew that most of the girls longed for a coat or gloves — anything to keep them warm — but covering up was not an option. Their eyes were cast down, but their hands waved mechanically at every car, angling for another customer to help meet their traffickers’ quotas.” Some excellent reporting by Emily Baumgaertner Nunn in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street? “Over the years, the Blade had become much busier than when Ana started: more girls, more customers, more traffickers idling in their Hellcats and Porsches on the side streets, watching to make sure their girls didn’t hide any money and didn’t snitch. Ana had seen the Blade expand from three main intersections of Figueroa to more than three miles. She had met girls brought in from the East Coast and the Deep South, and there sometimes seemed to be four times as many minors as before — easy to spot by their over-the-top makeup and unsteady gait. The police helicopters Ana used to notice hovering overhead with search lights seemed to become infrequent. Eventually, she said, they disappeared completely.” It makes you wonder. In a era when were spending so many resources fighting the hyped-up threat of an imaginary invasion, what if we put the same kind of effort into solving real, long term problems?
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Ven Diagram
“The U.S. hasn’t sent this many ships to the Caribbean since the Cuban missile crisis. There are already roughly 6,500 Marines and sailors in the region, operating from eight Navy vessels, as well as 3,500 troops nearby. Once the Ford arrives, the U.S. will have roughly as many ships in the Caribbean as it used to defend Israel from Iranian missile strikes this summer. The carrier strike group also provides far more firepower than is necessary for the occasional attack on narco-trafficking targets. But the ships could be ideal for launching a steady stream of air strikes inside Venezuela.” Some experts don’t think these moves are all about targeting speed boats. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The U.S. Is Preparing for War in Venezuela.
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Children of the Corn Belt
“Mackenzie Dryden’s happiest childhood memories are of running barefoot through the sunlit corn fields of her hometown. But when she was diagnosed with cancer 2½ years ago at 18 years old, a disturbing thought began to take hold. Could something in the land she loved have made her sick?” WaPo (Gift Article): The mysterious rise of cancer among young adults in the Corn Belt.
+ The New Republic: Of Corn and Cancer: Iowa’s Deadly Water Crisis.
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Extra, Extra
Melissa: “We’re witnessing satellite history.” That’s not what anyone in Jamaica wants to hear about the incoming Hurricane Melissa. WaPo: Monster hurricane to hit Jamaica. And here’s the latest from The Guardian: Hurricane Melissa strengthens to category 5 as communities in Jamaica warned of ‘potentially unimaginable impact.’
+ You Can Check Out Anytime You Like, But You Can Never Louvre: “Two suspects with a history of jewel thefts had been tracked for days after their DNA was recovered from the museum and were arrested shortly before one of them was set to board a flight out of the country.” Hunt on for remaining Louvre thieves after first arrests made.
+ Roach Clip: “The 2008 financial crisis occurred in part because banks and other financial institutions were offering too many mortgages to borrowers who couldn’t plausibly repay them. When enough bad loans began caving in at the same time, they sucked big banks and the rest of the economy into the sinkhole along with them. Banks today are subject to stricter regulations, which have largely functioned as intended, keeping banks from making as many risky loans. Filling the void has been private credit.” NYT (Gift Article): How Bad Is Finance’s Cockroach Problem? We Are About to Find Out.
+ Source-ry: Wired: Chatbots Are Pushing Sanctioned Russian Propaganda. (Consider the source material.)
+ Pet Peeve: “It is out there — the concept of ‘pawtism.’” Vaccine Skepticism Comes for Pet Owners, Too. (My beagles choose to do their own research.)
+ His Constitution is Strong. America’s? Not So Much:Trump Says a Recent M.R.I. Scan Was ‘Perfect,’ and He’d ‘Love’ a Third Term.
+ Spinning Off: “Sheridan is one of the industry’s biggest talents, creating the Yellowstone franchise (along with its multitude of spinoffs like 1923 and 1883), the Sylvester Stallone-led franchise Tulsa King and other programming for Paramount, like Special Ops: Lioness and Mayor of Kingstown.” Taylor Sheridan to Leave Paramount for NBCUniversal. (He seems to write all of their hits, so this is a pretty big deal.)
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Bottom of the News
“Others might have celebrated with a victory lap, a glass of wine, or the afternoon off. Not Šobat. He changed, packed his gear, and met his wife and daughter in the parking lot. They didn’t mention the record once. And besides, it was his turn to clean the bathroom.” The Man Who Held His Breath for 24 Minutes. (I can only hold my breath for a few seconds, but I hold my nose the whole time I read the news...)
+ Drone