Category: Economy

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Economy

What is a Decentralized autonomous organization, and how does a DAO work?

A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an entity with no central leadership. Decisions get made from the bottom-up, governed by a community organized around a specific set of rules enforced on a blockchain.

DAOs are internet-native organizations collectively owned and managed by their members. They have built-in treasuries that are only accessible with the approval of their members. Decisions are made via proposals the group votes on during a specified period.

A DAO works without hierarchical management and can have a large number of purposes. Freelancer networks where contracts pool their funds to pay for software subscriptions, charitable organizations where members approve donations and venture capital firms owned by a group are all possible with these organizations.

Before moving on, it’s important to distinguish a DAO, an internet-native organization, from The DAO, one of the first such organizations ever created. The DAO was a project founded in 2016 that ultimately failed and led to a dramatic split of the Ethereum network.

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Economy

The New Creator Economy – DAOs, Community Ownership, and Cryptoeconomics

The New Creator Economy – DAOs, Community Ownership, and Cryptoeconomics

By Nader Dabit

I first had what I can only describe as a spiritual awakening about 10 years ago to the fact that technology would (figuratively) rule the world. And since then, I’ve been obsessed with wanting to understand how software works and how to build it.

Since that moment, my life has changed significantly for the better. I can only attribute it to the simple fact that I have relied not only on my own instincts, but on those of people much smarter and more experienced than I am.

My hypothesis is this: try to find and follow the lead of those who have exhibited a long track record of success, find interests in their wake, and do my best to excel at them (while continuing to explore my own curiosities).

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Economy, Science & Technology News

Can’t find chicken wings, diapers, or a new car? Here’s a list of all the shortages hitting the reopening economy.

Juliana Kaplan and Grace Kay 

Empty shelves and shoppers at a Target store in Dublin, California, on March 15, 2020. Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

  • As the US economy increasingly reopens, it is seeing shortages of all sorts of items.
  • If you’ve tried to buy (or rent) a car or eat some chicken wings, you’ve probably noticed.
  • Insider rounded up some of the major supply shortages and why they’re lagging.
Continue reading… “Can’t find chicken wings, diapers, or a new car? Here’s a list of all the shortages hitting the reopening economy.”
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Analysis, Coronavirus, Economy, Employment, Science & Technology News

At least half of people who have a job fear they’ll lose it in the next 12 months

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Job losses are a concern for more than half of working adults.

New survey shows more than half of working adults fear for their jobs.

But two thirds of workers are optimistic about retraining on the current job.

Employment concerns and perceived opportunities to learn new skills vary greatly between countries.

A new Ipsos survey, conducted on behalf of the World Economic Forum, shows that more than half (54%) of working adults fear for their jobs in the next 12 months. However, these workers are outnumbered by those who think their employers will help them retrain on the current job for the jobs of the future (67%).

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Coronavirus, Economy, Employment, Housing, Science & Technology News, Trending

‘Zoom towns’ are exploding in the West

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And many cities aren’t ready for the onslaught.

First, there were boomtowns. Now, there are Zoom towns.

The coronavirus pandemic is leading to a new phenomenon: a migration to “gateway communities,” or small towns near major public lands and ski resorts as people’s jobs increasingly become remote-friendly. This is straining the towns’ resources and putting pressure on them to adapt.

A new paper published in the Journal of the American Planning Association shows that populations in these communities were already growing before COVID-19 hit, leading to some problems traditionally thought of as urban issues, like lack of affordable housing, availability of public transit, congestion, and income inequality. And while COVID-19 has accelerated the friction, the study suggests that urban planners can help places adjust.

There has been a drastic increase in remote work since March, when the pandemic hit the U.S. Nearly 60% of employees are now working remotely full or part time, according to a recent Gallup poll. Nearly two-thirds of employees who have been working remotely would like to continue to do so, according to that same poll. That would seemingly give workers a lot more flexibility when it comes to where they call home.

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Coronavirus, Economy, Housing, Science & Technology News

U.S. home sales spike an unprecedented 24.7% in July

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Sales exploded in every region in the country, led by the Northeast and West

The coronavirus pandemic helped shape the housing market by influencing everything from the direction of mortgage rates to the inventory of homes on the market to the types of homes in demand and the desired locations.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — U.S. home sales rose an unprecedented 24.7% in July as extraordinarily low mortgage rates, and a desire for more space in the pandemic, fuel demand.

A June rebound has stretched to July after the coronavirus pandemic all but froze the housing market in the spring, usually a time when house hunters are most active.

National Association of Realtors said Friday that sales of existing homes jumped last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.86 million. With consecutive months of record-breaking gains, purchases are up 8.7% from a year ago. Home sales rose 20.7% in June, a record that lasted one month.

The housing market has been one of the more resilient sectors of the economy during the pandemic, but market activity continues to hinge on supply, which was limited even before the coronavirus outbreak.

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Economy, Finance, government, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

Germany is beginning a universal-basic-income trial with people getting $1,400 a month for 3 years

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Starting this week, 120 Germans will receive a form of universal basic income every month for three years.

The volunteers will get monthly payments of €1,200, or about $1,400, as part of a study testing a universal basic income.

The study will compare the experiences of the 120 volunteers with 1,380 people who do not receive the payments. About 140,000 people have helped fund the study through donations. The concept of universal basic income has gained traction in recent years, and Finland tested a form of it in 2017.

Supporters say it would reduce inequality and improve well-being, while opponents argue it would be too expensive and discourage work.

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Coronavirus, Economy, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

The rise of the upper middle class

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We all know that economic inequality has increased in recent decades, but just who has won and who has lost are harder questions to answer. A new study suggests that, even before the coronavirus pandemic, much of the increase in inequality was generational. People born earlier in the post-World War II decades experienced faster income growth than people born later.

The study, published by the Brookings Institution, compared people in two 15-year stretches — 1967-1981 and 2002-2016 — when they were generally in their prime working years. The oldest members of the first group are mostly baby boomers. They achieved a 27 percent gain in their median incomes during the 15-year span, adjusted for inflation. By contrast, the oldest members of the second group were mostly millennials. Their inflation-adjusted gain was only 8 percent.

Just what has caused this skewing of incomes is a controversial subject, but the report’s findings generally agree with many other studies. College graduates do relatively well, and labor markets have become more turbulent. In the second 15-year period, 12 percent of people suffered at least one 25 percent drop of income. In the earlier period, the comparable figure was 4 percent.

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Automobiles, Coronavirus, Economy, Science & Technology News, Tesla

Quarterly sales of new cars in California down almost 50%

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Rosendo Nevarez makes the rounds at John Hine Mazda in Mission Valley on May 26, cleaning surfaces to maintain hygiene standards during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The numbers are in and the economic consequences wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic landed a body blow to new car sales in California, with dealers reporting a drop of 48.9 percent in the second quarter of this year compared to the same three-month period of 2019. Year-to-date vehicle sales are off 26.9 percent.

The statistics reflect the full effect of safety and social distancing protocols that kicked in by mid-March and dramatically curtailed or even temporarily shuttered some showrooms across the state.

“Obviously, with the fuller impact of the pandemic, it was very clear sales were going to drop at the end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter,” said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association. “The good news is they didn’t drop nearly as far as we initially feared. And while a nearly 27 percent drop is not ideal, it’s a lot better than it could have been.”

Dealerships have reported signs the market is regaining some footing as the economy tries to crawl back to some sense of normalcy. Economists with the new car dealers association predict new vehicle registrations in California will finish the year 22 percent lower than in 2019, falling from 2.09 million units to 1.63 million. They project the number to rise to 1.81 million in 2021.

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Coronavirus, Economy, government, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

Op-ed: Let’s double down on PPP and save America’s endangered small businesses

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KEY POINTS

We’re working to pass legislation that does two things: First, make Paycheck Protection Program funds available to eligible businesses through at least the end of this year, and second, authorize a second round of forgivable loans to the businesses most severely impacted by the pandemic.

We want to double down on PPP because, despite its bumpy beginning, it has clearly worked and staved off millions of business closures and job losses.

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Coronavirus, Economy, Elon Musk, government, Money Talk, Science & Technology News, Twitter

Elon Musk advocates for universal basic income instead of second stimulus check

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants his followers to know he still supports universal basic income, even though he thinks another coronavirus stimulus package from the U.S. government is a bad idea.

In a Twitter thread published early Friday morning, Musk tweeted that any additional stimulus package from Congress is “not in the best interests of the people,” and emphasized the point by pinning the tweet at the top of his Twitter profile.

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Analysis, Coronavirus, Economy, Science & Technology News

Coronavirus caused income loss for nearly half of American households

 

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Chief Economist on U.S. recovery and how we’re ‘standing at the bottom of the canyon’

 She had been working as a concierge services coordinator at a nonprofit performing arts organization in New York City for four years before the closure of entertainment venues across the city destroyed demand for her skills.

“Job hunting is already incredibly tough without a global pandemic,” she told Yahoo Money.

The coronavirus pandemic and response have left millions of Americans like Laura without a job and caused employment income loss for nearly half of the households across the country, according to research from the Household Pulse Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.

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