Washington Post (January 29)
“Self-driving cars appear to be safer than those with human drivers.” We should welcome their introduction. For example, “Waymo robotaxis have logged 33 million miles, mostly ferrying passengers in San Francisco and Phoenix.” In those two cities, “compared with cars driven by humans, Waymo vehicles have been involved in 62 percent fewer police-reported crashes, 78 percent fewer crashes that resulted in injury and 81 percent fewer crashes severe enough to deploy the air bags.” Moreover, the reality is probably even better as some of these accidents were caused by other drivers.
Tags: Accidents, Air bags, Crashes, Human drivers, Injury, Passengers, Phoenix, Police, Robotaxis, Safer, San Francisco, Self-driving cars, Waymo
New York Times (January 28)
“Stock futures are looking up after Monday’s markets blood bath, as investors take stock of what the Chinese start-up DeepSeek really means for the artificial intelligence business.” Many questions remain, but “the emerging consensus is that DeepSeek… has upended the race for A.I. supremacy. Apple and Meta might end up being better positioned than initially thought, while Nvidia might not be in a disastrous position.”
Tags: AI, Apple, Blood bath, Consensus, DeepSeek, Investors, Markets, Meta, Nvidia, Start-up, Stock futures, Supremacy, Upended
Institutional Investor (January 28)
“With Trump once again using tariffs as a key tool in his trade policy, investors are bracing for renewed volatility,” especially given the “frantic pace of changes.” Some investors, however, “remain optimistic about Trump’s potential economic impact.” For example, “KKR’s Henry McVey believes that strong markets and robust corporate earnings will offset any geopolitical risks and tensions.”
Tags: Corporate earnings. Geopolitical risks, Economic impact, Frantic, Investors, KKR, Markets, McVey, Optimistic, Tariffs, Tensions, Tool, Trade policy, Trump, Volatility
Barron’s (January 26)
“A chilling effect has spread throughout the Communist Party ranks as President Xi Jinping intensifies his crackdown on corruption. Those fears are beginning to extend into China’s business world” where the private sector is increasingly “nervous because of the size and scope of Xi’s campaign to rid insubordination or perceived enemies throughout the government and public sector.” In 2024, the campaign’s scope expanded by roughly 46%, with authorities disciplining 889,000 people, “the highest annual total since the party began releasing such data nearly 20 years ago.”
Tags: Authorities, Chilling, China, Communist party, Corruption, Crackdown, Disciplining, Enemies, Fears, Government, Insubordination, Nervous, Private-sector, Xi
Bloomberg (January 26)
“Oil fell as President Donald Trump imposed his first set of sanctions and tariffs in a move that highlighted risks to the global economy and to trade.” U.S. tariffs and other sanctions have now been imposed on Columbia, and the Trump “administration has also threatened actions on flows of goods from a host of other nations, including Canada and China.” On top of that economic uncertainty, Trump is advocating for “OPEC to bring down prices, potentially raising the pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.”
Tags: Canada, China, Columbia, Global economy, Oil, OPEC, Prices, Risks, Russia, Sanctions, Tariffs, Threat, Trade, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty, War
Financial Times (January 25)
“A small Chinese artificial intelligence lab stunned the world this week by revealing the technical recipe for its cutting-edge model, turning its reclusive leader into a national hero who has defied US attempts to stop China’s high-tech ambitions.” DeepSeek claims to have “used just 2,048 Nvidia H800s and $5.6mn to train a model with 671bn parameters, a fraction of what OpenAI and Google spent to train comparably sized models.” The release of DeepSeek’s R1 model “has Silicon Valley on the defensive, raising doubts “about whether better resourced US AI companies, including Meta and Anthropic, can defend their technical edge.”
Tags: AI, Anthropic, China, Cutting edge, DeepSeek, Defensive, Google, High-tech, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, R1 model, Silicon Valley, Stunned, Technical recipe, U.S.
The Guardian (January 24)
“Waiting for Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was like watching a tsunami gather force. Everyone could see the threat approaching. But its scale was still shocking as it hit land, and what damage it wreaks will ultimately take months and years to determine.”
Tags: Damage, Determine, Force, Inauguration, Months, Scale, Shocking, Threat, Trump, Tsunami, Waiting, Wreaks, Years
Wall Street Journal (January 22)
“Every incoming presidential administration is tempted to overread the electorate’s support for its agenda. Judging by the tone and content of President Trump’s Second Inaugural Address, his administration will be no exception.” He has already misread popular support “in his Inauguration Day executive actions.” If this continues, “he’s in for a rude awakening. The people who put him over the top on Nov. 5 weren’t members of his fervent MAGA base.”
Tags: Agenda, Electorate, Executive actions, Inaugural address, Incoming, Maga, Misread, Presidential administration, Rude awakening, Support, Trump
Motley Fool (January 21)
“While Wall Street has been given plenty of reason to be excited about President Donald Trump’s second term, he’s also making ominous stock market history—and it should have investors concerned.” Prior to his inauguration, the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E was at 38.11, marking “the highest reading for an incoming president dating back to January 1871,” the earliest comparable data point. During that same 154-year timeframe, the average Shiller P/E was 17.19. “Inheriting one of the priciest stock markets in history might pave the way for a bear market or short-lived crash during his second term.”
Tags: 1871, Bear market, Crash, Inauguration, Investors, Ominous, Priciest, S&P 500, Second term, Shiller P/E, Stock market, Trump
Washington Post (January 20)
“Big Tech’s power surge” was on clear display at Donald Trump’s inauguration. The event was also “an inauguration of the oligarchs, the billionaires’ ball come to Washington. Donald Trump did everything but invite the tech moguls to join him in taking the oath.” In a “revealing” scene, the moguls had “prime dais seating inside the cozy Rotunda while lawmakers and governors and other luminaries were relegated to watching on screens.”
Tags: Big tech, Billionaires, Governors, Inauguration, Lawmakers, Luminaries, Moguls, Oath, Oligarchs, Power surge, Relegated, Rotunda, Trump, Washington