America’s disappearing IPOs

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What happened to all the IPOs?

It wasn’t so long ago that the market for initial public offerings — in which a promising and often young private company first allows public investors to buy its stock, often as a way to raise money and invest in the future — was booming. In the two decades before 2000, America was averaging some 300 IPOs a year. In fact, volume was considerably higher than that from 1990 to 2000, reaching 706 in 1996, for example.

Then they fell off a cliff. Last year, there were a mere 147. What happened?

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The economics of artificial intelligence

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Rotman School of Management professor Ajay Agrawal explains how AI changes the cost of prediction and what this means for business.

With so many perspectives on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) flooding the business press, it’s becoming increasingly rare to find one that’s truly original. So when strategy professor Ajay Agrawal shared his brilliantly simple view on AI, we stood up and took notice. Agrawal, who teaches at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and works with AI start-ups at the Creative Destruction Lab (which he founded), posits that AI serves a single, but potentially transformative, economic purpose: it significantly lowers the cost of prediction.

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The most inclusive U.S. cities, mapped

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Heads up, cities: Economic growth does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with economic and racial inclusion.

That’s the finding of a new, in-depth analysis by the Urban Institute (UI) of the 274 largest cities in America. The report and accompanying data tool show how economic shifts in these cities since the 1980s have corresponded with “inclusion”—the ability of low-income residents and people of color to benefit from and contribute to the city’s economic gains.

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This generation has a huge and growing student debt burden. It’s not who you think

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A recent analysis of American debt revealed a startling shift: Borrowers between the ages of 45 and 74 now owe more money in education-related debt, on average, than do younger college graduates.

People under age 35 with student debt owe $32,900 on average, according to data from the Fed’s 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances. That debt number is higher for every other 10-year age bracket up to age 75: It peaks at $37,000 for 45- to 54-year-olds, but even 65- to 74-year-old borrowers owe an average $35,400.

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Google futurist and director of engineering: Basic income will spread worldwide by the 2030s

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Basic income will be widespread by the 2030s, according to Google futurist and director of engineering Ray Kurzweil.

Kurzweil is known for making seemingly wild predictions. In 2016, he predicted that by 2029, medical technology will add an extra year to human life expectancies on an annual basis.

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Retail bankruptcies just hit an all-time high — and these 18 companies could be the next to default

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Retail bankruptcies hit an all-time high in the first quarter of the year, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Sears, J.Crew, and Neiman Marcus are among the companies that could be next to default, according to S&P Global Ratings.

The fallout is far from over, however, with many more defaults expected for the remainder of 2018.

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Seeking a roadmap for the new American Middle Class

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Over the past few months, Starbucks, CVS, and Walmart announced higher wages and a range of other benefits like paid parental leave and stock options. Despite what the brands say in their press releases, the changes probably had little to do with the Republican corporate tax cuts, but they do reflect a broader economic prosperity, complete with a tightening a labor market. In the past couple of years, real wages hit their highest levels ever, and even the lowest-paid workers started getting raises. As Matt Yglesias wrote at Vox, “for the first time in a long time, the underlying labor market is really healthy.”

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This Is What Record-Low Unemployment Looks Like in America

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In towns where workers are scarce, employers are boosting pay and perks and stepping up recruiting—all while trying to avoid raising prices.

What will happen when the U.S. unemployment rate falls below 4 percent, which is expected to occur by this summer? One way to tell is to look at cities where joblessness is already lower than that. Bloomberg News reporters traveled to Iowa, Georgia, and Maine. What they saw there is encouraging. They discovered that employers have found ways to cope with tight labor markets and still make money. Businesses have pulled in workers from the sidelines—including retirees, immigrants, and the homeless—and retooled processes to use less labor. Some have raised pay considerably for certain jobs, but so far there are no signs of an overall wage explosion. That should embolden those at the Federal Reserve who want to raise interest rates slowly to give growth a chance.

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The secret to making $115 an hour in the gig economy

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10 highest-paying fields — with lots of growth — for gig workers

This is one hell of a gig.

Millions of workers now participate in the gig economy — loosely defined as the workers who work a series of freelance or temporary jobs rather than one full-time job. Indeed, about one in four Americans now participates in the digital gig economy, using apps or websites like Airbnb or Uber to earn some extra cash.

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Experts May Have a Viable Alternative to Universal Basic Income

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At Brain Bar Budapest, a large hall that was plastered in dark and leafy plants struggled to hold a sea of attendees. The crowd gathered to watch Steve Fuller, author of Humanity 2.0 and the Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology at Warwick University, debate Zoltán Pogátsa, a Hungarian political economist. The topic at hand? Whether or not Universal Basic Income (UBI) will be the “social security net of the future.”

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How much money you have to earn to be considered rich in 42 major US cities

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How much money it takes to be “rich” varies from city to city.

About 20% of Americans are upper-income, or “rich,” meaning they earn at least two times the national median household income.

The amount of money it takes to be considered rich is largest in San Jose, California.

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