The Economics Of The Surveillance State

FOMC Minutes Show 'A Few' Fed Members Wanted To Hike In June, 'Majority' Fear Higher Inflation Tl;dr: The minutes underscored a more hawkish tone on inflation. UBS traders noted that most participants cited scenarios in which price pressures could remain elevated, including stronger AI-related demand, the ongoing Middle East conflict and tariffs. In those cases, nearly all of those officials said some additional policy tightening would likely be warranted. Fed staff raised their inflation outlook for 2026 and 2027 compared with the April forecast, reflecting the effects of the Middle East...

'Slow Hire, No Fire' Economy Confirmed As Jobless Claims Drop Near Record Lows The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time dropped to just 208k last week - back near its lowest level on record... ...and still showing no signs of stress in the US Labor market. Continuing jobless claims also fell last week to 1.805 million Americans... And all of this positive labor market (no fire) news comes as payrolls suggests weaker growth... It appears the US economy has morphed into a 'slow hire, no fire' regime. ...

New York Rediscovers Nuclear Power, With Plenty Of Political Fine Print Five years after Indian Point’s last reactor shut down, Albany rediscovered the appeal of electricity that runs around the clock without burning fossil fuels. Governor Kathy Hochul wants 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity, with at least 1 GW developed by the publicly owned New York Power Authority, plus a separate 4 GW initiative.  There haven't been any announcements for the technology of choice, but the most likely candidates are the large Westinghouse AP1000 and the smaller 300 MW BWRX-300 from...