Hard to argue with this pearl of wisdom from @SamRo: "Money won’t be your biggest problem if AI destroys humanity."
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An easter egg for my fellow young Gen-X/elder millennials: Sumner H. Slichter, the labor economist and New Deal critic quoted at the top of my story, was the grandfather of Jacob Slichter, the drummer for Semisonic.
I found myself reading through the proceedings of the 1931 annual meetings of the American Economic Association (I'm a great time at parties), where Sumner H. Slichter warned that technology was advancing “more rapidly than in any previous age."
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Tragically I was not able to use my proposed headline: "In the Age of A.I., Is it Closing Time for Workers?"
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Ben Casselman retweeted
Very much enjoyed this synthesis of a range of historical examples of large-scale automation and a recent surge in analyses of their impacts using modern methods. Especially liked the quotes from contemporary economists of a century ago and the digging into reporting of that era - many of which read shockingly similarly to the concerns of today!
Happy to see the telephone operator case covered (@jamesfeigenbaum) but more exciting to see attention flowing to other insightful cases like bootmakers (@hillaryvipond), teamsters (@lang_econ), and others (@brunocaprettini, @benmschneider).
Thanks for engaging with the theme and bringing it to the masses @bencasselman!
Happy to see the telephone operator case covered (@jamesfeigenbaum) but more exciting to see attention flowing to other insightful cases like bootmakers (@hillaryvipond), teamsters (@lang_econ), and others (@brunocaprettini, @benmschneider).
Thanks for engaging with the theme and bringing it to the masses @bencasselman!
Like every other econ reporter, I've spent much of the past couple years trying to understand what A.I. will mean for the economy and for workers. But it's been frustratingly hard to reach any firm conclusions, because so much is uncertain -- how the technology will evolve, how quickly it will be adopted, how policymakers will respond.
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Like every other econ reporter, I've spent much of the past couple years trying to understand what A.I. will mean for the economy and for workers. But it's been frustratingly hard to reach any firm conclusions, because so much is uncertain -- how the technology will evolve, how quickly it will be adopted, how policymakers will respond.
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The real fun of this story, though, was digging into the examples themselves. Of spinners and weavers and threshers and bootmakers. Of steelmakers and telephone operators and typesetters and teamsters (the original teamsters!). Every story plays out a bit differently.
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Gift link below. This was a fun one to report.
nytimes.com/2026/10/22/bus…
nytimes.com/2026/10/22/bus…
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President Trump says the economy is great. Americans, overwhelmingly, disagree. With early voting underway in the midterms, what does the data show?
My answer, in three formats:
Story: nytimes.com/2026/10/18/bus…
Podcast: nytimes.com/2026/10/21/pod…
Video: nytimes.com/video/business…
My answer, in three formats:
Story: nytimes.com/2026/10/18/bus…
Podcast: nytimes.com/2026/10/21/pod…
Video: nytimes.com/video/business…
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Ben Casselman retweeted
Today for the @FT I ask how AI is affecting inflation. So far, energy prices matter most. But an AI-driven relative price shock could still complicate life for central bankers, esp if it's happening in expectation of a productivity boom that never arrives
ft.com/content/68b04a…
ft.com/content/68b04a…
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The A.I. boom needs chips, steel, electrical power and ... paint. So much paint. That's good news for PPG, the company that makes it.
Great story from @emmymrtin on how the A.I. buildout is affecting even the unlikeliest corners of the economy.
🎁🔗: nytimes.com/2026/10/22/tec…
Great story from @emmymrtin on how the A.I. buildout is affecting even the unlikeliest corners of the economy.
🎁🔗: nytimes.com/2026/10/22/tec…
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Ben Casselman retweeted
The 2024 elections showed that voters blame the president for their economic woes. In @bencasselman's piece for the @nytimes, @MichaelRStrain says he thinks voters will maintain this mindset ahead of the 2026 midterms.
nytimes.com/2026/10/18/bus…
nytimes.com/2026/10/18/bus…
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Charts! Inflation picked back up in September, on both a headline and a core basis. Prices are up 3.7 percent over the past year. Core prices have risen at an annual rate of 3.4 percent over the past three months.
U.S. consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in September and were up 3.7 percent from a year earlier. “Core” prices, excluding the volatile food and energy categories, were up 0.3 percent m/m and 2.6 percent y/y.
Data: bls.gov/news.release/c…
Full coverage: nytimes.com/live/2026/10/1…
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Faster inflation + slower nominal wage growth = falling average hourly earnings in real terms. Average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, fell 0.5 percent in September. Inflation has outpaced wage growth on a year-over-year basis for six consecutive months.
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