This Locale

What happens when machines can do nearly everything we once called a job? As productivity continues to rise and wages stagnate, we're entering a new economic era, one where owning productive assets, not trading time for money, will shape financial security. The real challenge isn't technological; it's structural. If the economy moves forward while most people stand still, demand collapses and society fractures. The solu...

The White House’s AI Action Plan paints a bold vision: moredata centers, a future-ready workforce, and innovation at hyper-speed; but the real economy, as echoed in the Beige Book, presents a grounded counterpoint. Skilled labor shortages, infrastructure gaps, and regional disparities threaten to stall this grand project before it gains full momentum. The benefit is undeniable: smarter healthcare, resilient industries, and better j...

The July 2025 Beige Book paints a revealing picture: whilethe U.S. economy isn’t in crisis, it’s certainly stuck in a cautious stall. A central problem is that inflation, driven in large part by tariffs, is raising costs for producers and squeezing consumers, making businesses hesitate on hiring, investment, and expansion. One fact stands out—employment gains were only “very slight” across most districts, and the few areas showing ...

As AI systems accelerate toward superintelligence—improving 300% year over year—we face a mounting risk that’s too easily ignored: alignment. When AI agents begin setting their own goals, even with good intentions coded in, the outcomes may diverge drastically from human values. Think: a brilliant assistant that redefines “safety” in a way that harms autonomy. A startling fact from a recent analysis suggests a non-trivial probabili...

As AI, robots and other smart technology start doing moreand more jobs, economics researcher David Schapiro warns that we might be heading toward a time when very few people have traditional jobs. That’s a big problem, because most of the money people use to buy things today comes from their paychecks, about 60% to 80%. But that number could drop to half or even less soon within the decade. The good news? There’s a new idea: instea...

I read through the Trends – Artificial Intelligence (AI) May30, 2025 report (by Mary Meeker / Jay Simons / Daegwon Chae / Alexander Krey). Mary Meeker’s reports are always ones that I look forward to, and as usual, found it definitely VERY interesting, but also concerning. AI adoption is now outpacing our economic and institutional ability to adjust, revealing a critical problem: the job market is lagging behind a technology boom t...

Economic Hesitation vs. Technological Acceleration: WillIndustry Catch Up in Time?

The latest Beige Book reveals an economy not in crisis, butin quiet retreat—businesses are holding back, employment is flat, and tariff-induced inflation is beginning to bite. Yet, while macroeconomic caution dominates, the technology sector surges forward. With AI agents, living intelligence systems, and decentralized energy on the rise, the tools fo...

The age of traditional SEO is over. We are now entering whatI would call the age of “Invisible Discovery,” where content is no longer created for people, but for the machines acting on their behalf. In a marketplace where AI agents digest and summarize content before a human ever sees it, being invisible to AI is equivalent to being irrelevant. One fact isclear: AI-generated traffic converts better than Google search traffic. This ...

America’s Small Business Revival: Hidden Strength AmidLabor Fragility and Technological Acceleration

The May 2025 data (from the 5/2/2025 Employment Situation Summary report; the 4/30/2025 Employment Cost Index Summary report; the 4/29/2025 JOLTS - Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary report; the 4/29/2025Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Summary report) shows unemployment deceptively at 4.2% and wages barely above in...

Reading the April 2025 Beige Book made me think: when tariffs rise and uncertainty spreads, innovation stalls and prices climb, just like clockwork. Only five out of twelve regions in America even reported any growth, and much of the recent car buying boom wasn’t real demand—it was fear of future price hikes​. Meanwhile, home sales inch up, but affordability and tight inventory crush the market. It’s a vivid reminder that when gove...