Straight‑A report cards have never been more common for America’s teens—but the payoff is not what parents think. A new National Bureau of Economic Research study finds that when teachers hand out “easy A” grades, their students are more likely…
In a world of protein-maxxing and fiber-counting, it’s hard to remember a time when a baked good itself could be a fad. But a decade ago, people underwent a frenzy for cupcakes. Adults would line up around the block for…
After six years on the sidelines, Uber is making a clear push to deploy its own robotaxis again, with deal structures that seem designed to limit its risk. It’s a significant reversal from a few years ago, when Uber sold…
Social Security is six years from insolvency. That’s not a projection buried in an actuarial footnote—it’s the opening finding of a new report from the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM), released Thursday, which puts the program’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance…
Lately, Priscilla Brown has had to choose between properly managing her Type 2 diabetes and affording other necessities, like gas in her car. Some days, she takes half or a third of her prescribed insulin dose — just to stretch…
But what does this more-than-century-old law, which originally was designed to support the shipping industry, have to do with the price of gas? As the director of the Center for Energy Innovation at UMass Lowell, I’ve learned that the impact…
For many decades, students have been steered toward a singular path: go to college, or risk falling behind. It’s a message that took hold in the 1970s and 80s, when school districts removed shop classes—once designed to introduce students to…
Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged Wednesday that the AI-fueled data center boom is contributing to inflation, pushing back on the popular argument that the productivity gains from artificial intelligence should be bringing prices down already. “In the short term, what’s…
European leaders doubled down Thursday on refusing to join the United States and Israel military campaigns in the Middle East as they met in Brussels to grapple with rising oil and gas prices caused by the war. European leaders have…
“What torments of grief you’ve endured from evils that never arrived,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th-century American philosopher and writer. Millions of workers are feeling similar. How many jobs will artificial intelligence destroy? And are we all worrying unnecessarily? “The demand for human labor will not go away,”…