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Category Archives: Economy

Google’s Shopping Gift Guide will show you what everyone’s buying

engadget – “Google has unveiled the Shopping Gift Guide, a microsite that lets you browse trending categories, compare prices and find local buying options. When you first launch it, you can go into product areas for chefs, athletes, techies, decorators, “wellness gurus,” gamers and kids. Once you click on the “techies” area, for instance, it… Continue Reading

Google Maps takes on Facebook with launch of its own news feed

TechCrunch: “People are getting frustrated that Stories are everywhere now, but Google Maps is keeping it old school. Instead of adding tiny circles to the top of the app’s screen, Google Maps is introducing its own news feed. Technically, Google calls its new feature the “Community Feed,” as it includes posts from a local area.… Continue Reading

Pretty Soon There’ll Be Just One Big Book Publisher Left

The New Republic: “America’s biggest, most powerful book publisher is about to get even bigger and more powerful. On Wednesday, a number of outlets reported that Penguin Random House had reached an agreement with ViacomCBS to purchase Simon & Schuster, the nation’s third-largest publisher, for $2 billion. The resulting conglomerate would publish at least a… Continue Reading

These are the charities where your money will do the most good

Vox: “Giving to charity is great, not just for the recipients but for the givers, too. But it can be intimidating to know how to pick the best charity, especially when there are thousands of worthy causes to choose from, and especially when the world’s in the midst of a massive pandemic and economic calamity… Continue Reading

Consumer Bureau to Decide Who Owns Your Financial Data

DC Report: What Should Banks, Fintechs Be Allowed to Do With All that They Know About You? – “A federal agency is gearing up to make wide-ranging policy changes on consumers’ access to their financial data. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is looking to implement the area of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform… Continue Reading

The coronavirus butterfly effect: Six predictions for a new world order

Fast Company – “In chaos theory, the butterfly effect describes a small change that can have massive, unpredictable consequences. An insect flaps its wings and, weeks later, causes a tornado. The coronavirus is more like an earthquake, with aftershocks that will permanently reshape the world. If we are lucky, the world will pass “peak virus”… Continue Reading

The Covid Resilience Ranking

Bloomberg – The Best and Worst Places to Be in the Coronavirus Era – “…The Magic Formula?…The under-performance of some of the world’s most prominent democracies including the U.S., U.K. and India contrasted with the success of authoritarian countries like China and Vietnam has raised questions over whether democratic societies are cut out for tackling… Continue Reading

A Framework for Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus

“Despite the worldwide effort to develop safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 and ramp up production capacity, it is inevitable that initial vaccine supply will be limited. Therefore, policymakers must develop plans to ensure the equitable allocation of limited doses until there is sufficient global supply. In response to a request from the National Institutes of… Continue Reading

Ad Council’s Challenge: Persuade Skeptics to Believe in Covid Vaccines

“…While the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna have announced promising updates on the vaccines they are developing, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has blamed President Trump for causing anxiety about the safety of potential immunization efforts. Anti-vaccine sentiment has been growing for decades, driven in part by a backlash against pharmaceutical companies. Fifty-eight percent of… Continue Reading

The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines

“…In the two-and-a-half years since the Task Force set to work, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and AI have advanced remarkably. But the world has not been turned on its head by automation, nor has the labor market. Despite massive private investment, technology deadlines have been pushed back, part of a normal evolution as breathless promises turn… Continue Reading

For Billion-Dollar COVID Vaccines, Basic Government-Funded Science Laid the Groundwork

Scientific American – “…The Moderna vaccine, whose remarkable effectiveness in a late-stage trial was announced Monday morning, emerged directly out of a partnership between Moderna and Dr. Barney Graham’s NIH laboratory. Coronavirus vaccines are likely to be worth billions to the drug industry if they prove safe and effective. As many as 14 billion vaccines… Continue Reading