06 Market

AI is splitting the housing market in two: Bay Area luxury homes up 13%, affordable ones collapsing– fortune.com

pgnewser May 7, 2026 0

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As AI mints new millionaires, billionaires, and even trillionaires, it’s also threatening to replace entry-level workers and sparking fearful chatter of the “permanent underclass.” There’s no place that’s more evident than in the Bay Area, at the heart of Silicon Valley, where technology is wedging a deeper divide in the K-shaped economy, especially in the housing market.

A new Redfin report found that since the launch of ChatGPT’s first model in Nov. 2022, luxury home prices in the region—classified as those selling between $3.1 and $7.6 million—have jumped 13.4%. At the same time, home values for lower-end properties in the Bay Area—those $535,000 to $615,000—have fallen by 3.8%.

“Some owners of lower-end properties have missed out on the AI boom, with home prices in the most affordable Bay Area zip codes declining over the past two years,” Yingqi Xu, Redfin senior economist, said in a statement. “It’s another sign of the K-shaped economy taking shape in the Bay Area, with AI lifting the fortunes of some households and neighborhoods much more than others.”

Many Americans today are grappling with the sobering reality of high mortgage rates, inflated home prices, and a housing stock shortage. Many are delaying homebuying by a near decade from just a few years ago, as the median age of the first-time homebuyer hit 40 in 2025, up from just 33 in 2021.

President Donald Trump said U.S. consumer confidence is ‘way up.’ Metrics don’t bear that out– www.politifact.com

pgnewser May 7, 2026 0

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During a White House small business summit, President Donald Trump said the economy is strong and his policies are satisfying Americans.

“Consumer confidence is way up,” Trump said at the May 4 event.

Three standard measurements of consumer satisfaction — from the University of Michigan; a business group called the Conference Board; and an aggregation of public polling data — show the opposite. They reveal that people are less satisfied with the economy now than at the end of President Joe Biden’s tenure, and at least one of the metrics puts consumer confidence near an all-time low.

The White House pointed to retail spending data to support his statement, but that isn’t a clear-cut measure of consumer confidence when other economic factors are at play.

AI and the Treasury Debt Market | American Enterprise Institute– www.aei.org

pgnewser May 7, 2026 0

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The market for Treasury debt is challenging to interpret even when the environment is calm, much less when multiple geopolitical and technological disruptions are present simultaneously. Two papers released in the past year offer differing perspectives on a consequential unknown in the current market, which is the expected effect artificial intelligence (AI) will have on future productivity growth.

The first of the two relevant papers, co-authored by Isaiah Andrews and Maryam Farboodi, examined market signals in 2023 and 2024 around the releases of updated AI models from five leading developers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Deepmind, xAI, and DeepSeek). A main finding was that the nominal interest rates for long-term Treasury and corporate debt fell after these models became public by a statistically significant 12 basis points.

Leftist Censorship Groups Advise AI Company Anthropic– www.dailysignal.com

pgnewser May 6, 2026 0

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Over the past decade, the Left has cultivated a censorship industrial complex of “experts” on “extremism” who try to bully Big Tech and corporate America into blacklisting conservatives over hot-button cultural issues such as LGBTQ+ orthodoxy and parental rights.

While the censorship industrial complex has suffered setbacks, it enjoys a persistent influence—notably at Anthropic, the major AI company behind the chatbot Claude.

Anthropic openly touts its relationship with four branches of the censorship industrial complex, and each of them has ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The SPLC, the left-wing smear factory that pioneered the censorship strategy, now faces federal charges for allegedly lying to banks while attempting to conceal payments to members of the Ku Klux Klan, but Anthropic is not reconsidering its work with the SPLC’s allies.

Final Persian Gulf Oil Shipment Reaches California Amid Supply Fears– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser May 6, 2026 0

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California has finally won its drawn-out battle against fossil fuels.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrat politicians, eco-activists, and the elite media have long made the oil firms the enemy and made them a target of regulatory attack. A few examples:

Well, the state may have won the war…as the last California-bound oil tanker to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since war erupted is now offloading its shipment at the Port of Long Beach.

The New Corolla loaded up in Iraq on Feb. 24 — just days before U.S. and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran, plunging the region into turmoil and sparking a double blockade of commercial shipping.

In two weeks, the Hong Kong-flagged tanker will have fully unloaded at the Marathon Petroleum terminal and departed again for distant waters. After that, California must figure out how to replace some 200,000 barrels of oil a day that will no longer be arriving from the Persian Gulf.

California’s own supply of crude oil has been declining since the 1980s, due to aging fields and a geology that makes drilling particularly costly. The state’s gasoline refining capacity is also falling off, increasing reliance on imports and highlighting California’s status as an isolated energy island without gas pipelines to bring in supply from other states.

Europe’s jet fuel supplies should fall below the key 23-day shortage threshold in June– fortune.com

pgnewser May 6, 2026 0

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Europe is weeks away from crossing a critical threshold that represents a severe and immediate shortage of jet fuel, triggering many more flight cancelations and even the possible closures of smaller airports.

A new Goldman Sachs research report estimates that Europe’s commercial jet fuel inventories are slated to dip below the International Energy Agency’s critical 23-day shortage threshold sometime in June. “The U.K. appears most at risk of jet fuel rationing given its large net imports,” the report argued.

The threshold doesn’t mean Europe will run out of fuel supplies 23 days from that point—that would only occur without any replenishments. But it does mean global crude and fuel supplies are running dryer each day from the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the war in Iran. Europe could, for instance, dip below a more dire 20-day limit by July, resulting in more drastic rationing, and maybe 15 days by August.

FDA Is Hiding Studies Showing Vaccines Safe And Effective– crooksandliars.com

pgnewser May 6, 2026 0

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FDA Officials have blocked publication of several studies supporting the safety of widely used vaccines against Covid-19 and shingles in recent months, a DHS spokesman confirmed.

The studies, which cost millions of dollars in public funds, were conducted by scientists at the agency, who worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records. They found serious side effects to be very rare.

In October, the scientists were directed to withdraw two Covid-19 vaccine studies that had been accepted for publication in medical journals. In February, top F.D.A. officials did not sign off on submitting abstracts about studies of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a major drug safety conference.

The withdrawal of the studies is the latest step by the administration to try to limit access to vaccines. It has sharply cut research funding for vaccine development, released unvetted information casting doubt on vaccines, and blocked other information supporting their safety, most recently a paper on Covid vaccine effectiveness by career scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Israelis’ wealth grows 80% in six years– en.globes.co.il

pgnewser May 6, 2026 0

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Rising stock markets along with growth in pension and provident fund savings have generated unprecedented wealth for the Israeli public in the past few years. According to Bank of Israel figures released last week, at the beginning of 2026 (February) the Israeli public’s portfolio of financial assets was worth a record NIS 7.4 trillion. This represents growth of NIS 1.1 trillion within a year, and an 80% rise within six years. At the beginning of 2020, the public’s portfolio was worth NIS 4.1 trillion.

The continual growth in the financial assets portfolio, which includes money held in bank accounts, savings programs (provident funds, pension funds, and mutual funds), and securities, provides a glimpse into the way in which Israelis have managed their money in recent years, the level of risk that they tend to take, and their impact on prices in the local stock market.

Appetite for risk

A glance at the make-up of the public’s financial assets shows that Israeli investors’ appetite for risk has grown considerably. At the end of 2022, the proportion of risk assets (stocks and bonds) in the portfolio was 39%. By the beginning of 2026 it had jumped to 48%.

As Household Bills Soar, Activists Dream of a Green New Deal Remake – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com

pgnewser May 6, 2026 0

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Americans do not care about the climate crisis, only economic issues: That’s the message some wonks have put forth in the past year, as the Trump administration has dismantled environmental protections. But the shift away from climate is misguided, an influential group of progressives is arguing.

“The climate crisis is a core driver of the cost-of-living crisis and instability we see across the economy,” says a new policy platform from left-leaning think tank Climate and Community Institute (CCI).

The proposal, “Stop Greed, Build Green,” outlines a framework for what its authors call “green economic populism.” Decarbonization should be understood not as competing with affordability, but as a potential tool for achieving it, says the group, which has written federal bills for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and was behind a groundbreaking New York public power law.

America’s AI Rules Are Being Written in Courtrooms | American Enterprise Institute– www.aei.org

pgnewser May 5, 2026 0

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The debate over regulating artificial intelligence usually focuses on two competing visions. In Europe, lawmakers are writing detailed rules that govern how AI can be developed and used. In the United States, policymakers are taking a lighter touch, allowing companies, investors and consumers to shape the technology’s future.

But a new analysis from students at the University of Florida identifies a third force quietly shaping the future of AI in America: the courts.

As AI spreads faster than any previous technology, judges and juries are being asked to resolve disputes. In doing so, they are not simply applying existing laws—they are, case by case, defining what responsible AI use looks like. The result is a distinctly American form of AI governance: one built through the give and take of negotiations and legal processes rather than legislation.

So far, courts have mostly resisted treating AI as something fundamentally new. Instead, they have folded AI into existing legal doctrines, focusing on the humans and institutions behind the technology.

DOJ Investigating Alleged Antitrust Violations by Major Meatpackers– legalinsurrection.com

pgnewser May 5, 2026 0

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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the DOJ antitrust division has been investigating possible violations by the meatpacking industry.

Blanche spoke at a press conference:

As you all know, last November, the president tasked the department to investigate the costs and prices of beef. As a result, we prioritized investigating potential antitrust violations in US cattle and beef markets.

In the beef industry, the big four processors control over 85% of the beef processing market. Two of the big four are primarily foreign owned. Multiple plant closures across the country. The current market structure and high concentration in the industry indicate anti-competitive activity. Since the President’s executive order, the department has been actively investigating with a review of over 3 million documents. Hundreds of industry participants, including ranchers, cattlemen, producers, and processors have been contacted and many interviewed as part of this ongoing investigation.

More broadly, the department has also executed on the President’s executive order to stop anti-competitive behavior in the broader food supply market.

Later this week, we will be announcing an historic settlement that will directly affect the prices of proteins like chicken, pork, and turkey. This business model allows competitors to exchange competitively sensitive information on every aspect of the protein industry, and has raised the prices on chicken, raised the prices on pork, and raised the prices on turkey.

California Copied Europe’s Insane Energy Playbook, And Now Residents Are Really Paying the Price– www.westernjournal.com

pgnewser May 5, 2026 0

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Even as U.S. gasoline prices rise again amid ongoing Strait of Hormuz tensions, American drivers are still paying less than half what many Europeans and Asians endure at the pump. The reason is simple: America chose lower taxes and genuine energy security.

Europe and California deliberately chose the opposite — and are now reaping the painful, predictable consequences.

Taxes explain most of the gap, as the Wall Street Journal detailed on April 22. European governments routinely pile on $3–$4 per gallon in excise duties, VAT and “green” levies. In Germany, prices recently hit the equivalent of $8.75 a gallon, with taxes comprising over half the total. Most U.S. states charge roughly 20 cents.

Dept. of Education proposes rule tying federal aid to graduates’ earnings– www.thecollegefix.com

pgnewser April 21, 2026 0

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Key Takeaways

  • The U.S. Department of Education proposed a rule to hold colleges accountable for graduates’ earnings, introducing an ‘earnings test’ to ensure graduates earn more than those without a degree.
  • Programs failing to meet the earnings threshold, with bachelor’s graduates earning less than high school graduates, would lose eligibility for federal student loans.
  • The proposal aims to address rising student debt, emphasizing that taxpayer subsidies should only support programs that yield better outcomes for graduates.

Apple just named its next CEO—and Tim Cook is passing down the same advice Steve Jobs once gave him– fortune.com

pgnewser April 21, 2026 0

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“I would probably say the same thing,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal just weeks before the succession announcement. “Because you can get in paralysis if you start trying to port yourself into somebody else’s thinking.”

Ternus, who currently serves as Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take the helm on September 1. Meanwhile, Cook’s 15-year stint as CEO of the tech giant will come to an end as he transitions to executive chairman of the board. Although the tech industry looked a whole lot different when Cook stepped into the top job in 2011— AirPods were still years away from hitting the market—he has never wavered from Jobs’ leadership lesson. And now, he’s passing down the same wisdom in welcoming the next face of Apple.

“I would say: Be yourself, keep a firm North Star on the values of the company,” Cook continued. “Because if you get the values right, if you keep the North Star in clear view, you may be blown off course a little bit, but eventually you will come back to the right path. I have always found that to be true.”