Myths of the 1 Percent: What Puts People at the Top
By: New York Times November 17, 2017 Income inequality inspires fierce debate around the world, and no shortage of proposed solutions. As global billionaires bid up the price of a da Vinci painting on Wednesday, to $450.3 million, Congress debated tax reforms that many analysts said would give the largest benefits to the richest 1 […]
Deutsche Bank CEO Cryan hints robots could replace thousands of people at the bank
By: Will Martin November 7, 2017 Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan has hinted that the lender could cut thousands more jobs as it continues to adjust to expectations of substantially lower future revenues. “We employ 97,000 people,” Cryan said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Most big peers have more like half that number.” […]
End of the checkout line: the looming crisis for American cashiers
By: Julia Carrie Wong August 16, 2017 he day before a fully automated grocery store opened its doors in 1939, the inventor Clarence Saunders took out a full page advertisement in the Memphis Press-Scimitar warning “old duds” with “cobwebby brains” to keep away. The Keedoozle, with its glass cases of merchandise and high-tech system of […]
Taking the Measure of Tech in Policy — with Kamala Harris
By: a16z June 26, 2017 “Slow down, cowboys” — that’s what Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) said when prosecutors in her office wanted to bring a case against companies that let apps download someone’s entire address book, because surely that’s a complete violation of privacy?! The issue was a perfect example of the perfect storm playing […]
Generation Wealth
By:The Economist June 22, 2017 Author and film director Lauren Greenfield’s latest project, “Generation Wealth”, represents three decades photographing and interviewing people about their relationship with money. She thinks we are living in a time of unprecedented obsession with wealth and status. But can consumerism also be a force for good? Anne McElvoy hosts. For […]
Rigged, Forced into Debt, Worked Past Exhaustion, Left with Nothing
By: Leer en español June 20, 2017 Los Angeles — Samuel Talavera Jr. did everything his bosses asked. Most days, the trucker would drive more than 16 hours straight hauling LG dishwashers and Kumho tires to warehouses around Los Angeles, on their way to retail stores nationwide. He rarely went home to his family. At […]
Report of Findings from the Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers and Technology
By: Shift Commission May 15, 2017 New America and Bloomberg’s publication, Report of Findings , from the Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers and Technology captures the viewpoints of 100 leaders and workers across all walks of American life as they imagine the future of work 10–20 years from now. Read Full Report
A Robot Revolution, This Time in China
By: Keith Bradsher May 12, 2017 Even a decade ago, car manufacturing in China was still a fairly low-tech, labor-intensive endeavor. Thousands of workers in a factory, earning little more than $1 an hour, performed highly repetitive tasks, while just a handful of industrial robots dotted factory floors. No longer. At Ford’s newest car assembly […]
Drone home: Amazon to triple R&D staff at Cambridge base
By: Sarah Butler May 5, 2017 Amazon is to more than triple its research and development team in Cambridge working on tech innovations such as its Alexa digital assistant, delivery drones and Echo smart speaker. The US online retailer is opening a new building in the city with room for 400 experts in mathematical modelling, […]