#Google pitching new #AI tools to retailers to help raise #consumer #prices
@groundwork.bsky.social:
“This is the holy grail for them.”
@lindsayowens.bsky.social
sounds the alarm on Google’s new AI shopping “tools” that could quietly turn your personal data into a pricing weapon.
When prices are hidden inside AI chats, we can’t compare costs, budget, or know if we’re being treated fairly.
https://www.techpolicy.press/big-techs-ai-shopping-tools-raise-stakes-for-surveillance-pricing-laws/
For avg working #family, , this year's #prices went up $1,625.
#Economics #Inflation #PoliEcon
@groundwork.bsky.social :
NEW: Inflation in the past year has cost working families an average $1,625. The price hikes are across the board:
🥚 Groceries cost $310 more
🏡 Housing costs are up 3.2%
💡 Electricity prices are up 6.7%
"Trump admin - 4 plans to reorganize #labor market. None of them came to pass."
MAGA labor story had 4 part: reduce gov & adjacent jobs, the private sector will have better jobs. #Tariffs will "reindustrialize the country.” "reclaim [native] jobs through mass #deportation . “gender theory of MAGA economics" - "we’re going to turn all the girlbosses into tradwives once they see all the manly men at the USA iPhone-screwing factory.” 😂
https://newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/a-year-in-the-maga-labor-market-story
BLS jobs report shows significant weakening.
Nov #unemployment rate was 4.6%, up 0.6% since Jan.
"The three-month moving average of job growth fell from 232k in January to 62k in November."
Thread from epi.org 's #EliseGould: https://bsky.app/profile/elisegould.bsky.social/post/3ma4cs3ydas23
Downward revisions for August and September plus large losses in October—due to an enormous drop in federal workers at the end of September—has meant a significant slowing in the pace of job growth. The three-month moving average of job growth fell from 232k in January to 62k in November. #EconSky
Great convo about an important new book, The #AgeofExtraction by #TimWu .
#TechPlatforms have become modern town squares -- places to buy/sell products and exchange ideas. How has their privatization & exploitation of us affected our #society & #politics? How does #AI fit it? What can the rest of us do to take back some economic and political power?
The US "used to heavily subsidize newspapers" via USPS -- 0.2% of GDP, "almost $60 billion a year in today’s economy."
Here's "a serious way to support an essential public service like local newspapers."
"The gov could give people a tax credit to " support the news outlet of their choice."
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/billionaires-wont-save-local-news-heres-what-will/
Democrats can refuse Wall St demands for double digit profits.
"The evidence is pretty strong that electricity has jumped the line over some other affordability issues and now sits near the top of the list. And Democrats have a pretty good plan to execute to counteract this. First, they can stress reducing the profit margins that utility companies argue they must have in order to stay in business."
-- #DavidDayen
The latest #misalignedmarkets post is about historical developments that are core to understanding what market capitalism is and how it works. https://misaligned.markets/contingencies-of-capitalism/
(3/3) Not only do the protocols of capitalism result in rules written and influenced by capital holders, but the rules are so gameable they create easily exploitable vulnerabilities.
The favored position of capital and the breaking of capitalism's rules are fundamental to how capitalist systems evolve. Getting the broader public to recognize that, I think, is the first step towards fighting for a fairer world.
“Manufacturing employment is down three-months in row for a cumulative loss of 37,000. Since its peak in early ‘23, its down 173,000. Because so much US #manufacturing depends on imported inputs, I’m very concerned that Trump’s escalating #tradewar exacerbates this negative trend.” - @jaredb-econ.bsky.social
tanya tussing
MidniteMikeWrites
