Major manufacturers and transport companies including Maersk, Siemens, and Unilever are putting AI to work to advise on contract terms, hunt down suppliers on better shipping routes or with better terms, and spot ethical potholes, such as buying cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, where Uighur Muslims are allegedly enslaved.
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
It’s barely mainstream news. Most people don’t have a clue what in the real world is going on. Flooded with “news” about Donald Trump indictments, Women’s World Cup soccer, the latest tropical storm, etc., the socioeconomic and geopolitical trends shaping the future aren’t clickbait worthy to capture the crowd.
CENTRAL BANKS ARE FOSTERING AN EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT
U.S. mortgage rates here in the United States have just risen to their highest level in 21 years. Meanwhile, despite all the talk about how raising rates would somehow tame inflation, and that it was just temporary, and even transitory, inflation continues to rise. Moreover, by the Fed’s own admission, “inflation continues to outpace every projection they have made.” Moreover and overall, food inflation continues to outpace everything else. With energy inflation a close second.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC STRUGGLE
We have repeatedly provided Trends Journal subscribers with details and facts of China’s economic rise and fall. For over a decade we had forecast that while the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century would be the Chinese century... because the business of China is business while the business of America has been war.
FROM FAKING ACTORS TO FAKING HISTORY: THE HOTTEST AI ISN’T CHATGPT
Through the alchemy of AI, people can now have “conversations” with the most interesting historical figures in the world.
AS FORECAST, UKRAINE’S COUNTEROFFENSIVE HAS FAILED: NEGOTIATE FOR PEACE, OR DIE AT WAR
The Trends Journal has called for Kyiv to negotiate for a peaceful settlement before Russia invaded Ukraine, not because we agree with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade, but because Ukraine has no chance of winning against a superior Russian military and it would be in the best interest of its government to get along with their superpower neighbor.
EUROPE: BANKRUPTCIES UP, STARTUPS DOWN
Through April, May, and June, business bankruptcies in the Eurozone increased 8.4 percent, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.
Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
As we had long forecast, the higher central banks raise interest rates, the lower the Merger and Acquisition trend… which hit record highs at the height of the COVID War in 2021 when interest rates sank and governments pumped in countless trillions to artificially prop up sinking economies.
GOING OUT OF BUSINESS TRENDS
In recent times, the economic landscape has presented an array of challenges that have profoundly affected the business community. Some of the most significant challenges include soaring inflation rates, escalating interest rates, looming fears of a recession, and a tangible decrease in revenues for many sectors... all made worse by the COVID War which destroyed the lives and livelihoods of billions across the globe.
UBS AGREES TO $1.44 BILLION IN FINES IN BOND CASE
UBS Group, the Swiss global financial services firm, has agreed to pay a $1.44-billion fine to settle charges brought by the U.S. justice department that the company had defrauded investors.
Geopolitics
THREE BLIND MICE: BIDEN MEETS WITH SOUTH KOREAN, JAPANESE LEADERS TO UNITE AGAINST CHINA
The Biden administration continued its effort to surround China and provoke tensions in the Asia-Pacific last weekend during a summit at Camp David with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
U.S. TRIES TO BULLY MEXICO INTO BUYING ITS FRANKENSTEIN CORN
The U.S. last week requested a dispute settlement panel to step in during its legal fight with Mexico that involves corn sales and can result in a rare trade war between neighbors.
HARDLY NEWS: SUDAN’S CIVIL WAR SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL, MILLIONS FACE FAMINE RISK
African-Americans’ lives may matter, but nobody cares about African lives.
Trends in AI
AI: THE NEW SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER
Major manufacturers and transport companies including Maersk, Siemens, and Unilever are putting AI to work to advise on contract terms, hunt down suppliers on better shipping routes or with better terms, and spot ethical potholes, such as buying cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, where Uighur Muslims are allegedly enslaved.
WHY TODAY’S AI FRENZY IS NOT THE DOT-COM BUBBLE 2.0
In the 1990s, any company with “dot-com” attached to its name could issue stock, share prices would soar, and millionaires would be made in the company and in the equity market.
CHATBOTS OFFER HACKERS AN OPEN DOOR TO A NEW PLAYGROUND
Earlier this month at the annual Defcon computer hackers conference, Anthropic, OpenAI, and other artificial intelligence developers invited the world’s best cyber-invaders to be their most creative in attacking and penetrating current generative AIs.
Hi-Tech Science
COMMON BACTERIUM OFFERS PATHWAY TO INFINITELY RECYCLABLE PLASTIC
Imagine a world where plastic is always plentiful without ever having to make any more.
IS ANTI-CANCER DRUG THE NEW ANTIDOTE TO AGING?
Rapamycin, a drug that slows the growth of cancer tumors, is being touted as a possible way to slow aging.
WRITING HEALING INTO A WOUND
The longer a gouge or scrape or similar laceration to the skin stays open, the greater the danger of infection. Closing a wound can require stitches, a procedure that carries problems and dangers of its own.