Spending on datacenters is going through the roof, for sure, but productivity has not been experiencing the galloping gains that the technorati’s epochal prognostications lead one to expect. Labor productivity was, in fact, slower in the first three years of our AI era than during the information technology boom that began in the mid 1990s.
Even OpenAI’s Sam Altman, AI’s most public face, says he now doubts its job-killing potential. “I don’t think we’re going to have the kind of jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about,” he said in May. As Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist David Autor noted: “A lot of people have noticed that the world is not changing as fast as they predicted.”
We are very excited to have Governor J.B. Pritzker (D. IL) on the Find Out Podcast. Governor Pritzker has long been one of Trump's loudest critics, fighting him every step of the way. Last year, Governor Pritzker was the first Democratic Governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate to call for invoking the 25th Amendment. Pritzker renewed his call after Trump threatened to end Iran's whole civilization if they didn't meet his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Despite reaching a two week ceasefire, Governor Pritzker also points out that Trump didn't really secure much of a deal with Iran after all his threats. In fact, Governor Pritzker points out that Mr. Art Of The Deal ended up with another TACO deal. It's very clear that something is mentally wrong with Trump, especially after this whole ordeal, and now is the perfect time to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Trump's illegal war with Iran wasn't the only thing on our minds when we interviewed the Governor. Pritzker opens up about how Trump still owes every American family $1,700 after the Supreme Court ruled his tariffs were illegal. The Governor also touches upon his ideas for Democrats to address affordability concerns including homeownership, raising wages and making it easier to join or start a union.
00:37 Please Welcome One Of America's Best Governors
00:50 Trump's Iran TACO Deal
02:43 Costs Were Coming Way Down Under Joe Biden
03:39 Every American Is Owed $1,700 From Trump's Tariffs
07:40 Invoking The 25th Amendment
11:10 What Can Democrats Do?
13:53 Addressing The Affordability Crisis That Trump Made Worse
17:10 Thank You Governor For Your Time
17:54 The Types Of Democrats We Need Running On The National Level
20:10 Don't Rule Out Zohran Mamdani On Anything
23:04 The People Who Were Cheering For Trump A Year Ago Are Now Calling For His Removal
24:19 Joe Rogan & Theo Von Going Back & Forth On Trump
29:03 J.D. Vance Being Completely In The Dark On Iran
30:46 The Massive Flips In Wisconsin
36:46 Desperate For Someone Who Will Never Do That Again
39:08 Strait Of Hormuz Closed Again
Josh Hawley tells us that blue-collar and manual labor are the domains of true masculinity. He tells us that they are the path to freedom, and meaning, and purpose. He tells us that men have no social value if they do not undertake this kind of work.
But is any of this true?
Does this kind of work bring us the freedom he claims?
Is he really the voice of "working men?"
Or is he another elitist who benefits from the exploitation of workers while masquerading as a liberator? Dan argues that this is the real story. Listen to this week's episode to find out why.
If job growth slows when immigration slows, what does that say about the story politicians have been telling for years? Justin Wolfers uses plain-English economics to answer that question—and to show why the immigration debate affects far more than border politics.
At the center of this discussion is a basic but often ignored fact: people are more than workers. They are also consumers, neighbors, entrepreneurs, and sources of new ideas. When immigrants arrive, they do not just increase labor supply. They also increase demand for homes, food, transportation, healthcare, education, and countless local services. That helps support jobs throughout the economy.
Justin Wolfers argues that the familiar “they’re taking your job” message depends on a false assumption that there is a fixed number of jobs to go around. Economists call this the lump of labor fallacy. It sounds intuitive, but it misses how growth actually happens. More people can mean more production, more spending, more innovation, and more employment.
The video then turns to an important political reversal. Trump administration figures defending weaker payroll numbers have said the economy no longer needs as many new jobs because immigration has fallen. That claim is revealing. It concedes that immigrants were helping generate jobs all along.
Using research on the sharp drop in net migration and a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation, Justin Wolfers shows how the decline in working-age immigration roughly matches the decline in monthly job growth. The implication is that restricting immigration may shrink the economy’s capacity to create work.
That matters to you because a slower-growing economy usually means fewer openings, weaker local business activity, and less opportunity for workers and families trying to get ahead.
Topics covered:
Why the immigration debate is really about how economies grow
How the lump of labor fallacy distorts public policy
Why immigrants are both workers and consumers
How immigrants can complement native-born workers
Why business formation is part of the immigration story
What Trump advisors said about weaker job growth
How falling net migration affects labor force growth
Why fewer immigrants can mean fewer jobs overall
Contents:
00:00 The Question That Changes The Debate
01:09 The Claim That Immigrants Take Jobs
02:28 Why That Story Misses Half The Economy
03:22 The Lump Of Labor Fallacy In Plain English
04:29 Why Newcomers Expand The Pie
05:42 The White House’s Accidental Admission
06:56 The Economics Of Workers Plus Customers
08:09 What The Migration Data Shows
09:29 Simple Arithmetic, Big Implications
10:21 Why This Matters For Your Paycheck
💡 Key takeaway: Immigration is part of what makes economies more dynamic, and cutting it can reduce job creation rather than protect it.
Subscribe for more from Justin Wolfers—where the analysis is evidence-based, the jargon is optional, and the arithmetic mostly behaves. 📚
The civil lawsuit alleges that the arrangement violated a federal law prohibiting forced labor and, because the policies saved labor costs for GEO, ran afoul of a Colorado common-law prohibition on unjust enrichment…
"People don't understand that if we don't get more labor, our cows don't get milked and our crops don't get picked," said Tim Wood, a dairy farmer and a member of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau board of directors…
"I understand that he was here illegally, but I also understand that he's human," Painter said. "They want the American dream, and they want to work."
Painter eventually managed to find another couple, this one from Guatemala. But the wife is due to have a child in November, and Painter is wondering how he and the husband will manage to care for a 450-head dairy operation on their own.
"If they're here working and paying their taxes," Painter said, "they are not the troublemakers that we should be focusing on getting rid of."…
"There is a huge disconnect between Trump's pro-worker rhetoric and the policies he's putting in place. The gulf is enormous," said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive thinktank. "In his second term, he's been absolutely, brazenly anti-worker."
"I keep thinking about his taking away the Biden-era increase in the minimum wage for federal contractors. It's unbelievably brazen," Shierholz continued. (Trump ended the requirement that federal contractors pay their workers at least $17.75 an hour.) "The minimum wage is incredibly popular. He just took away the minimum wage from hundreds of thousands of workers. That blew my mind." As a result, many full-time workers will see their pay drop by more than $9,200 a year...
Despite the Trump administration's celebrations, other data suggests that U.S.-born workers are on less stable footing than their foreign-born counterparts this year.
While economists take issue with foreign- and native-born worker counts from the census survey, they say the unemployment rate, employment-population ratio and labor force participation rate provide a more accurate snapshot of the job market and how it has changed over time.
Joblessness is actually higher among U.S.-born workers than among immigrants, and U.S.-born workers are more likely to be unemployed than they were a year ago, BLS data shows...
Today, a little over 12.7 million Americans work in manufacturing. But in the 1970s, that number was nearly 20 million. Over the years, globalization and lowered trade barriers have resulted in cheaper labor abroad and closed factories in America.
But as President Trump pushes to revitalize manufacturing through tariff policy, economists and trade experts are divided on whether a manufacturing renaissance makes sense for the U.S., which has evolved to a service-based economy. Others say the benefits of onshoring go beyond price: shorter shipping times, better quality control, and supply chain agility, among other advantages.
To better understand the challenges and possibilities of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., CNBC visited a Midwestern bike maker shifting its supply chain from China to the U.S.
Reveal celebrates its 10-year anniversary with standout stories from the archives and interviews with the journalists behind the investigations.
The first pilot episode of Reveal exposed how the Department of Veterans Affairs was overprescribing opioids to veterans and contributing to an overdose crisis. Journalist Aaron Glantz explained how he received—surprisingly quickly—a decade’s worth of opioid prescription data from the federal government.
“Sometimes, you have to sue to get the records,” he said. “I have to think that there were some people over there in DC who were as concerned as we were about this.”
After that first show was made, host Al Letson didn’t know what to expect. “We weren’t sure if any public radio stations would even air it,” he said.
Reveal’s VA investigation sparked outrage. Congress held hearings during a government lockdown, and there’s been a sea change in the way veterans are prescribed painkillers. And today, the show is on more than 500 stations.
This week on Reveal, we celebrate our 10-year anniversary with a look back at some of our favorite stories, from investigations into water shortages in drought-prone California to labor abuses in the Dominican Republic. And we interview the journalists behind the reporting to explain what happened after the stories aired. Interview:
The most annoying convert TradCath in the world, JD Vance, whose cherubic face belies all his bootlicking aggression, gets his moment with Pope Bob. Usha stands behind him in a black mantilla. He hands the pontiff an oversized envelope: an invitation from Donald and Melania to a White House dinner. Bob smiles guardedly as he takes it and without looking at it, setting it on his desk. “I’ll read that at some point,” Vance sputters, “of course, of course.”
The scene is set for the Church-State tension of whatever phase of global fascism we’re now entering. These ghouls who jail students, disappear immigrants, and lobby for the Trump Gaza resort, shuffle into the Vatican with hats in hand to meet a fellow American who is nothing like their boss, asking for pats on the head, wondering what kind of alliance they can forge, perhaps through anti-wokeness discourse.
The enigmatic response from Pope Bob sums up where we all are as we read the incense swirls for whether he’s going to keep steering the world’s 1.4B Catholics against the tides of late-stage capitalism and environmental protection, Francis-style.
Interview:
"Elon Musk created the opportunity that Donald Trump took to unmask himself as rabidly anti-union, and he did that by praising Elon Musk's anti-union, union-busting perspective and endorsing the idea of illegally firing striking workers," he said.
Brad and Dan are back! They delve into the significant themes and key moments from the Democratic National Convention. They highlight the sense of joy and solidarity portrayed, contrasting it with the fear-driven politics often seen at the RNC.
The hosts discuss the refreshing models of masculinity and labor representation, exemplified by figures like Tim Walz and Shawn Fain. Brad emphasizes the powerful, emotional moments that underscore the importance of collective effort and mutual support in American life. The episode also touches on the criticisms around the exclusion of Palestinian voices and the uncommitted movement from the event, highlighting the ongoing challenges and areas for growth within the democratic coalition.
00:00 Introduction and Political Commentary
01:09 Democratic National Convention Highlights
02:00 Hosts Reunite and Catch Up
03:39 Discussion on Masculinity and Friendship
04:15 Analyzing the DNC’s Impact
05:51 Kamala Harris and Democratic Strategy
08:02 Joy vs. Fear in Politics
19:48 Michelle Obama’s Powerful Speech
25:03 Weirdness in Political Discourse
29:27 Critiquing the ‘Weird’ Label in Politics
33:17 Understanding Masculinity in Modern Politics
35:08 Contrasting Visions of Masculinity
39:48 Labor and Solidarity in American Politics
50:45 Reflections on Family and Love
01:01:41 Concluding Thoughts and Upcoming Events
