A US appeals court allowed President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday night to continue construction of a US$400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing, setting a June hearing to review a Washington judge’s order halting the project. An order by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the lower court’s preli...
A US appeals court allowed President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday night to continue construction of a US$400 million ballroom on the site of the White House’s demolished East Wing, setting a June hearing to review a Washington judge’s order halting the project. An order by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the lower court’s preliminary injunction on hold for now, giving the panel time to consider the US Justice Department’s...
Galeanu Mihai/iStock via Getty Images By Peter C. Earle Elon Musk claims AI-driven growth could fund UBI transfers without inflation. But relative prices - not just totals - still drive economic allocation. Recent remarks by Elon Musk have reignited debate over the economic implications of artificial intelligence, following a widely circulated video clip in which he predicts a future of “universal...
Galeanu Mihai/iStock via Getty Images By Peter C. Earle Elon Musk claims AI-driven growth could fund UBI transfers without inflation. But relative prices - not just totals - still drive economic allocation. Recent remarks by Elon Musk have reignited debate over the economic implications of artificial intelligence, following a widely circulated video clip in which he predicts a future of “universal high income” funded by direct government payments. In the clip - shared broadly on X and quickly amplified across financial media - Musk argues that AI-driven production will expand so rapidly that it will outpace growth in the money supply, rendering such payments non-inflationary and potentially even deflationary. As he puts it, if goods and services grow faster than money, prices should fall, even as governments distribute cash to households. The claim builds on his longstanding advocacy of income support in an AI-disrupted labor market but extends it into a more explicit monetary argument: that large-scale issuance of money need not distort prices if productivity growth is sufficiently strong. It is a striking claim, and one that arrives at a moment when Musk’s commercial interests are increasingly tied to the perceived scale and inevitability of the AI transformation. With his artificial intelligence initiatives becoming more deeply integrated into the broader SpaceX ecosystem - and with expectations of a major capital markets event on the horizon - there is a clear incentive to frame AI not merely as an incremental innovation but as a system-altering force capable of reshaping the global economic landscape. That does not make the vision wrong. But it does suggest that rhetoric surrounding abundance, inevitability, and frictionless adjustment should be read, at least in part, as a forward-looking narrative - an attempt to describe not just what may happen, but what investors and the public should come to expect. The economic reasoning underlying the claim, however, is...
Langness, Isle of Man: With their epic migrations, they are special birds, but especially so here, the place that coined the name A swallow recorded at the start of March, sand martins mid-month. This year, many harbingers of spring have come early due to the warming climate, so here on the island, the question was: would our Manx shearwaters return early too? Few places have birds named after the...
Langness, Isle of Man: With their epic migrations, they are special birds, but especially so here, the place that coined the name A swallow recorded at the start of March, sand martins mid-month. This year, many harbingers of spring have come early due to the warming climate, so here on the island, the question was: would our Manx shearwaters return early too? Few places have birds named after them, but the Isle of Man is one (Sardinia another, for Sardinian warblers), the name granted in 1835 thanks to a large shearwater colony on the Calf of Man, an island off our south-west corner. That population was devastated by rats from a shipwreck, but after a rodent eradication programme by the Manx Wildlife Trust, numbers have rebounded to more than 1,500 breeding pairs. Continue reading...
Gary Yeowell/DigitalVision via Getty Images By Jennifer Nash Builder confidence took a hit in April due to economic uncertainty and persistent affordability concerns. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) fell 4 points from March to 34 this month, marking the 24th consecutive negative reading. The latest reading was lower than the forecast of 37. The National ...
Gary Yeowell/DigitalVision via Getty Images By Jennifer Nash Builder confidence took a hit in April due to economic uncertainty and persistent affordability concerns. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) fell 4 points from March to 34 this month, marking the 24th consecutive negative reading. The latest reading was lower than the forecast of 37. The National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index is a gauge of builder opinion on the relative level of current and future single-family home sales. The data is collected from a monthly survey of about 900 home builders asking respondents to "rate market conditions for the sale of new homes at the present time and in the next six months as well as the traffic of prospective buyers of new homes." It is a diffusion index, which means that a reading above 50 indicates a favorable outlook on home sales; below 50 indicates a negative outlook. Here are a few quotes from the press release : “Builder sentiment has fallen back in spring as buyers face ongoing elevated interest rates and growing economic uncertainty,” said NAHB Chairman Bill Owens, a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio. “The year started with hopes for housing momentum growth, but risks with respect to the Iran war, energy costs, and declines for consumer confidence have slowed the market.” “With oil prices higher in the U.S., 62% of builders reported suppliers have increased building material costs due to higher fuel prices, including gas and diesel,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Energy costs make up approximately 4% of residential construction material input and service costs. With near-term economic risks elevated, 70% of builders reported challenges pricing homes given uncertainty about material costs.” Here is the historical series, which dates from 1985. Components of the NAHB Housing Market Index The NAHB Housing Market Index is calculated based off of three components: current sales...
phuttaphat tipsana/iStock via Getty Images I rate Fair Isaac Corporation ( FICO ) a Buy. I think the market is completely missing the forest for the trees here. Investors are so spooked by the "triple threat" of regulation, new competitors, and AI disruption that they are ignoring a massive fundamental gap. This fear has sparked a brutal sell-off, dragging the stock down over 55% from its late-202...
phuttaphat tipsana/iStock via Getty Images I rate Fair Isaac Corporation ( FICO ) a Buy. I think the market is completely missing the forest for the trees here. Investors are so spooked by the "triple threat" of regulation, new competitors, and AI disruption that they are ignoring a massive fundamental gap. This fear has sparked a brutal sell-off, dragging the stock down over 55% from its late-2024 peak to its current level near USD 1,070. In this analysis, I want to show why these fears are mostly noise. FICO's management is already moving to neutralize these risks through an aggressive, high-margin strategic pivot. Most retail investors still think FICO is just a credit score company. It’s not. It is the universal language of global finance—a standard with switching costs that are frankly much higher than the current stock price suggests. The urgency for investors is underscored by two major announcements this week. First, on April 16, 2026, FICO announced it will report its Q2 FY 2026 financial results on April 28, 2026. This upcoming call will be a critical pulse check on the company's aggressive SaaS transition. Second, the company recently priced USD 1.0 billion in Senior Notes , providing the firepower for its massive USD 1.5 billion share repurchase program. Management is essentially front-running the market, signaling that today’s price is a gift for long-term buyers. With shares trading at roughly 24x forward earnings—levels we haven't seen in nearly a decade—the disconnect between FICO’s record Q1 FY2026 numbers and the share price is just too large to ignore. For a long-term investor, this is a rare entry point. Let’s dive in. Context FICO’s Q1 FY 2026 results showed a healthy 16.3% top-line jump, but you have to look closer to see what's actually driving the bus. Most of the heavy lifting came from the Scores segment (both B2B and B2C), which surged nearly 30% year-over-year. Scores now make up about 60% of total revenue. On the flip side, the software ...
Investing.com -- President Donald Trump has signaled that a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is imminent, suggesting that the summit could be "historic" as both nations coordinate on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and regional energy security.
Investing.com -- President Donald Trump has signaled that a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is imminent, suggesting that the summit could be "historic" as both nations coordinate on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and regional energy security.
The sound of tinkling bells drifts through an alley in central Seoul, an unmistakable sign that a shaman is near – although in this case the mystic is a robot powered by artificial intelligence. Many South Koreans still place great value in shamanic traditions, which purport to divine a person’s future based on the day and time they were born. Practitioners, known as mudang, wear long, colourful r...
The sound of tinkling bells drifts through an alley in central Seoul, an unmistakable sign that a shaman is near – although in this case the mystic is a robot powered by artificial intelligence. Many South Koreans still place great value in shamanic traditions, which purport to divine a person’s future based on the day and time they were born. Practitioners, known as mudang, wear long, colourful robes and perform dances and chants to commune with the gods – sometimes even walking on sharp blades...
Key PointsOracle stock has crashed more than 50% from its all-time high, yet 28 out of 35 Wall Street analysts still rate it a Buy or Strong Buy with a median price target implying 60% upside.
Key PointsOracle stock has crashed more than 50% from its all-time high, yet 28 out of 35 Wall Street analysts still rate it a Buy or Strong Buy with a median price target implying 60% upside.
Intel (NasdaqGS:INTC) is joining Elon Musk's Terafab AI semiconductor project alongside Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX. The alliance focuses on advanced chip manufacturing for AI, robotics, and space-related computing. The Terafab initiative targets custom, high performance chips aimed at large scale computing capacity. For Intel, a major player in CPU and data center silicon, this move links its manufact...
Intel (NasdaqGS:INTC) is joining Elon Musk's Terafab AI semiconductor project alongside Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX. The alliance focuses on advanced chip manufacturing for AI, robotics, and space-related computing. The Terafab initiative targets custom, high performance chips aimed at large scale computing capacity. For Intel, a major player in CPU and data center silicon, this move links its manufacturing capabilities to a group of companies focused on AI models, autonomous systems, and space...