Juggling Dynamite

AI’s Secret Impact on Your Power Bill.  Electricity bills have been climbing across the US, but the AI boom is making it worse. A lot worse. New data centers are popping up everywhere to handle ChatGPT, Gemini, and countless other AI tools. And here’s the kicker: you’re helping pay for them whether you use AI or not. In Columbus, Ohio, residential customers saw their bills jump by $27 a month this summer. Philadelphia went up $17. Washington D.C., $21. You may not be using more power, but utilities are building massive infrastructure for data centers and passing those costs onto you. How much is this AI blitz really costing us? And what can we actually do about it? Here is a direct video link.

Boots (tires) on the ground…

The freight industry has long been thought of the circulatory system of the economy. It’s how the things bought & sold through commerce get from point A to point B in the real world. Historically, when trucking freight loads diminish, it’s usually correlated with a weakening economy. And if it gets bad enough, a recession. Today’s guest is Craig Fuller of Freightwaves, price reporting agency (PRA) focused on the global freight market and the leading provider of high-frequency data for the global supply chain. He recently released a prediction that the US freight trucking industry is about to experience “the largest capacity purge in history.”  We’ll ask him what that means for the economy, as well as the hundreds of thousands of workers he expects to be impacted by it. Here is a direct video link.

Four decades of policies that boosted spending and steadily reduced tax rates by papering over deficits with asset bubbles are moving toward inevitable restructuring. Investment horizons and risk tolerance steadily shrink with age. But thanks to another spate of irrational exuberance, Boomers, now aged 61 to 79, face capital risk that has rarely been higher, while return prospects have rarely been lower. The retirement expectations of the masses are ripe for disappointment.

Around the world, market forces – low interest rates, longer lives, workers changing jobs – are testing underfunded pension plans. We explore how the world should rethink financial security for aging populations. The Netherlands offers one solution by taking on more risk for younger populations. Economist Teresa Ghilarducci explains why countries like the US have kicked the can down the road, while Dutch experts Adrian Rikjen and Stan Veuger highlight how a pivot toward defined contributions could make the system sustainable.  Here is a direct video link.