EVs and the US Power Grid

Over half of all new cars sold in the U.S. by 2030 are expected to be electric vehicles. That could put a major strain on our nation’s electric grid, an aging system built for a world that runs on fossil fuels.

Domestic electricity demand in 2022 is expected to increase up to 18% by 2030 and 38% by 2035, according to an analysis by the Rapid Energy Policy Evaluation and Analysis Toolkit, or REPEAT, an energy policy project out of Princeton University. That’s a big change over the roughly 5% increase we saw in the past decade.

“So we’ve got a lot of power demand coming to this country when we really didn’t have any for the last, like, 25 years,” said Rob Gramlich, founder and president of Grid Strategies, a transmission policy group.

While many parts of the economy are moving away from fossil fuels toward electrification — think household appliances such as stoves, and space heating for homes and offices — the transportation sector is driving the increase. Light-duty vehicles, a segment that excludes large trucks and aviation, are projected to use up to 3,360% more electricity by 2035 than they do today, according to Princeton’s data.     READ MORE...

Small Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear plants could become smaller, simpler and easier to build in the future, potentially revolutionizing a power source that is increasingly viewed as critical to the transition away from fossil fuels.

New designs called small modular reactors, or SMR in shorthand, promise to speed deployment of new plants as demand for clean electricity is rising from artificial intelligence, manufacturing and electric vehicles.

At the same time, utilities across the country are retiring coal plants as part of the energy transition, raising worries about a looming electricity supply gap. Nuclear power is viewed as a potential solution because it is the most reliable power source available and does not emit carbon dioxide.

Building large plants is very costly and time-consuming. In Georgia, Southern Co. built the first new nuclear reactors in decades, but the project finished seven years behind schedule at a cost of more than $30 billion.     READ  MORE...

Tune Out Your College Major

I’m living proof you don’t need a certain college major to do alright in life.

At Sarah Lawrence College, I didn’t have a major. Nobody did — the school’s undergraduate program doesn’t have them. I have the oft-mocked and statistically underpaid bachelor’s in liberal studies.

And while luck has probably contributed a fair amount to my success — I’ve remained gainfully employed the entire time I’ve been out of school — it’s kind of funny now to think there was a time I was so anxious that my degree wouldn’t get me anywhere.

The question of whether your college major matters (if you even have one) is similar to the question of whether having a degree at all matters in that the answer is yes and no.

There’s plenty of data to support the idea that more education will help you earn more money. But there is also not quite a shortage of success stories of people who didn’t get a degree. Billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey are among many who famously dropped out of college.

The same goes for majors. Plenty of statistics can show you which degrees tend to correlate with higher earnings. Meanwhile, some hugely successful names in various industries studied something completely different than what would define their careers.  READ MORE...

Google Lays Off Hundreds of Employees

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc., during Stanford’s 2024 Business, Government, and Society forum in Stanford, California, US, on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images




Just ahead of its blowout first-quarter earnings report on April 25, Google laid off at least 200 employees from its “Core” teams, in a reorganization that will include moving some roles to India and Mexico, CNBC has learned.

The Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products and for protecting users’ online safety, according to Google’s website. Core teams include key technical units from information technology, its Python developer team, technical infrastructure, security foundation, app platforms, core developers, and various engineering roles.


At least 50 of the positions eliminated were in engineering at the company’s offices in Sunnyvale, California, filings show. Many Core teams will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.    READ MORE...

India Challenges China on Technology

For years, China has been Asia’s technology powerhouse.

It is home to what once were some of the world’s most valuable companies, from Tencent to Alibaba. It is where most of the world’s iPhones and other electronics products are produced. And it is now a serious player in electric vehicles.

But a shift appears to be underway, with other countries in Asia trying to take China’s crown.

India is one of these contenders. New Delhi has sought to woo foreign tech companies and has been increasingly successful, with giants like Apple increasing their presence in the country.

India is looking to boost areas such as high-tech electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, as well as support its burgeoning yet challenged startup scene.     READ MORE...

The Wealth of the ONE PERCENT (1%)

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. 


The wealth of the top 1% hit a record $44.6 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, as an end-of-year stock rally lifted their portfolios, according to new data from the Federal Reserve.


The total net worth of the top 1%, defined by the Fed as those with wealth over $11 million, increased by $2 trillion in the fourth quarter. All of the gains came from their stock holdings. The value of corporate equities and mutual fund shares held by the top 1% surged to $19.7 trillion from $17.65 trillion the previous quarter.

While their real estate values went up slightly, the value of their privately held businesses declined, essentially canceling out all other gains outside of stocks.

The quarterly gain marked the latest addition to an unprecedented wealth boom that began in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic market surge. Since 2020, the wealth of the top 1% has increased by nearly $15 trillion, or 49%. Middle-class Americans have also seen a rising wealth tide, with the middle 50% to 90% of Americans seeing their wealth increase 50%.  READ MORE...

Happiest Country in the World

For the last six years, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world. I’ve lived here most of my life, and as a psychologist and happiness researcher, I’m often asked: what exactly makes people in Finland so satisfied with their lives?


You may be surprised to learn that Finnish people are often the first to question this characterization. Our national self-image is that we’re quiet, introverted and somewhat melancholy types. This doesn’t exactly align with being the happiest people on earth.


However, research has shown that those most desperately seeking happiness tend to be less happy. So if true happiness is best achieved indirectly, without paying too much attention to it, that is something Finnish people excel at.     READ MORE...

NATO Countries Not Going Into Ukraine

France’s suggestion that Ukraine’s allies could potentially send ground troops into Ukraine has caused indignation and outrage in Russia, with officials warning it could provoke a direct conflict between Russia and NATO member states.

Eyebrows were raised Monday when French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that European heads of state and Western officials, who met in Paris on Monday, had talked about the possibility of sending ground troops into Ukraine.


“There is no consensus today to officially, openly, and with endorsement, send troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing should be ruled out. We will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said at a news conference Monday evening. READ MORE...

Tax Evasion by Millionaires

A version of this article appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

The nation’s millionaires and billionaires are evading more than $150 billion a year in taxes, adding to growing government deficits and creating a “lack of fairness” in the tax system, according to the head of the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS, with billions of dollars in new funding from Congress, has launched a sweeping crackdown on wealthy individuals, partnerships and large companies. In an exclusive interview with CNBC, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the agency has launched several programs targeting taxpayers with the most complex returns to root out tax evasion and make sure every taxpayer contributes their fair share.     READ MORE...

Billionaires That Belong to BRICS

(L to R) Brazil’s President Michel Temer, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, China’s President Xi Jinping, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for a group photo during the BRICS 

Summit on September 4, 2017.    Wu Hong | Afp | Getty Images




Millionaire population in the BRICS countries will see a substantial surge over the next decade contributing to the largest increase in wealth across any group of nations, according to a recent report by Henley & Partners.

Millionaire count in the BRICS countries — which together hold $45 trillion in investable wealth — is forecast to rise by 85% over the next 10 years, the investment migration consultancy noted in its report published in partnership with global intelligence firm New World Wealth.


The BRICS bloc, which is composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates this year, with Saudi Arabia also set to join the bloc.

Currently, there are 1.6 million individuals with investable assets of more than a million in the group.     READ MORE...

Saudi Arabia Wants to be AI Hub in Middle East

DAVOS, Switzerland — For years, the United Arab Emirates has been the Middle East’s go-to tech hub, thanks partly to its lack of personal income tax, flexible visa policies, and competitive incentives for international businesses and workers.

But Saudi Arabia is keen to capture some of the limelight, and talent, from its neighbor on the Arabian Peninsula — an ambition laid bare on the Davos Promenade this year.

The Saudi delegation staged a splashy presence on the city’s main street, including an expansive storefront dedicated to promoting Neom, a new urban development in northwestern Saudi Arabia; a space dedicated to the AlUla project, an initiative that’s part of the kingdom’s push to make the heritage city a global destination for tourists; a pop-up for the Saudi crown prince’s Foundation, MiSK, and its youth ambassadors called “majlis” — as well as two more Saudi chalets. It’s all part of the country’s Vision 2030 strategy of economic diversification.     READ MORE...

India is Growing its Economy

India is poised to become the world’s second-largest economy by 2075, leapfrogging not just Japan and Germany, but the U.S., too, says Goldman Sachs.

Currently, India is the world’s fifth-largest economy, behind Germany, Japan, China and the U.S.

On top of a burgeoning population, driving the forecast is the country’s progress in innovation and technology, higher capital investment, and rising worker productivity, the investment bank wrote in a recent report.

“Over the next two decades, the dependency ratio of India will be one of the lowest among regional economies,” said Goldman Sachs Research’s India economist, Santanu Sengupta.

A country’s dependency ratio is measured by the number of dependents against the total working-age population. A low dependency ratio indicates that there are proportionally more working-age adults who are able to support the youth and elderly.

Sengupta added that the key to drawing out the potential of India’s rapidly growing population is to boost the participation of its labor force. And Sengupta forecasts that India will have one of the lowest dependency ratios among large economies for the next 20 years.

“So that really is the window for India to get it right in terms of setting up manufacturing capacity, continuing to grow services, continuing the growth of infrastructure,” he said.

India’s government has placed a priority on infrastructure creation, especially in the setting up of roads and railways. The country’s recent budget aims to continue the 50-year interest-free loan programs to state governments in order to spur investments in infrastructure.

Goldman Sachs believes that this is an appropriate time for the private sector to scale up on creating capacity in manufacturing and services in order to generate more jobs and absorb the large labor force.  READ MORE...

Nuclear Reactor on Moon

LONDON — The UK Space Agency said Friday it would back research by Rolls-Royce  looking at the use of nuclear power on the moon.

In a statement, the government agency said researchers from Rolls-Royce had been working on a Micro-Reactor program “to develop technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon.”

The UKSA will now provide £2.9 million (around $3.52 million) of funding for the project, which it said would “deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor.”

The new money builds upon £249,000 provided by the UKSA to fund a study in 2022.

“All space missions depend on a power source, to support systems for communications, life-support and science experiments,” it said.

“Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically increase the duration of future Lunar missions and their scientific value.”

Rolls-Royce is set to work with a range of organizations on the project, including the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and Nuclear AMRC, and the University of Oxford.

“Developing space nuclear power offers a unique chance to support innovative technologies and grow our nuclear, science and space engineering skills base,” Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said.

Bate added that Rolls-Royce’s research “could lay the groundwork for powering continuous human presence on the Moon, while enhancing the wider UK space sector, creating jobs and generating further investment.”

According to the UKSA, Rolls-Royce — not to be confused with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, which is owned by BMW — is aiming “to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.”

Dhara Patel, space expert at the National Space Centre in Leicester, England, told CNBC that humans returning to the moon would need “a reliable power source” so astronauts could “live and work on our lunar neighbour for long-term missions.”

“Solar power would seem an obvious choice but the Moon’s rotation results in a two-week day followed by a fortnight of darkness or night time — not ideal,” Patel went on to explain.

“With little air and no liquid water on the surface, other renewable sources of energy aren’t possible,” she said. “Nuclear power could enable a continuous source of power regardless of the physical environment and conditions on the lunar surface.”

Using nuclear power on the moon, Patel noted, could boost the lifetime of lunar missions.  READ MORE...

Tech Companies Laying Off Workers

The job cuts in tech land are piling up, as companies that led the 10-year bull market adapt to a new reality.


Google announced plans to lay off 12,000 people from its workforce Friday, while Microsoft said Wednesday that it’s letting go of 10,000 employees. Amazon also began a fresh round of job cuts that are expected to eliminate more than 18,000 employees and become the largest workforce reduction in the e-retailer’s 28-year history.

The layoffs come in a period of slowing growth, higher interest rates to battle inflation, and fears of a possible recession next year.

Here are some of the major cuts in the tech industry so far. All numbers are approximations based on filings, public statements and media reports:

Alphabet: 12,000 jobs cut

Google, owned by parent company Alphabet, said Friday it will lay off 12,000 people from its workforce.

Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, said in an email sent to the company’s staff that the firm will begin making layoffs in the U.S. immediately. In other countries, the process “will take longer due to local laws and practices,” he said. CNBC reported in November that Google employees had been fearing layoffs as its counterparts made cuts and as employees saw changes to the company’s performance ratings system.

Alphabet had largely avoided layoffs until January, when it cut about 240 employees from Verily, its health sciences division.

Microsoft: 10,000 jobs cut

Microsoft is reducing 10,000 workers through March 31 as the software maker braces for slower revenue growth. The company also is taking a $1.2 billion charge.

“I’m confident that Microsoft will emerge from this stronger and more competitive,” CEO Satya Nadella announced in a memo to employees that was posted on the company website Wednesday. Some employees will find out this week if they’re losing their jobs, he wrote.

Amazon: 18,000 jobs cut

Earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company was planning to lay off more than 18,000 employees, primarily in its human resources and stores divisions. It came after Amazon said in November it was looking to cut staff, including in its devices and recruiting organizations. CNBC reported at the time that the company was looking to lay off about 10,000 employees.

Amazon went on a hiring spree during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company’s global workforce swelled to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2021, up from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.   READ MORE...

The IMF Predicts for 2023

The International Monetary Fund predicts global growth will slow to 2.7% next year, 0.2 percentage point lower than its July forecast, and anticipates 2023 will feel like a recession for millions around the world.

Aside from the global financial crisis and the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is “the weakest growth profile since 2001,” the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook published Tuesday. Its GDP estimate for this year remained steady at 3.2%, which was down from the 6% seen in 2021.

“The worst is yet to come, and for many people 2023 will feel like a recession,” the report said, echoing warnings from the United Nations, the World Bank and many global CEOs.

More than a third of the global economy will see two consecutive quarters of negative growth, while the three largest economies — the United States, the European Union and China — will continue to slow, the report said.

“Next year is going to feel painful,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, told CNBC on Tuesday on the back of the report. “There’s going to be a lot of slowdown and economic pain,” he said.  READ MORE...

The Race to Space

The race to provide high-speed internet from satellites is well underway – but another, more ambitious competition, to connect directly from space to devices like smartphones, began in earnest earlier this year.

The potential untapped market — which hinges on, but extends beyond, sending a text via space — is spurring a tale of two strategies: Those putting specialized antennae in phones, versus those putting high-powered antennae on the satellites themselves. For some companies, it means billions spent on what could end up being a losing approach.

“The satellite industry is really niche and – if they can tap into connecting billions of smartphones – they can start talking about market sizes that are way greater than they’ve ever been able to address before. Everything before has been in the millions,” Caleb Henry, senior analyst at boutique research firm Quilty Analytics, told CNBC.  READ MORE...

Robots Replace 800 Million Jobs by 2030

CNBC REPORTS

A new report released by McKinsey & Company indicates that by 2030, as many as 800 million workers worldwide could be replaced at work by robots.

The study found that in more advanced economies like the U.S. and Germany, up to one-third of the 2030 workforce may need to learn new skills and find new work. In economies like China’s, roughly 12 percent of workers may need to switch occupations by 2030.


The report also provides insight into the industries that will be least impacted by robots and the skills needed to fill those positions.

For some industries, an increase in automation won’t mean a decline in employment, but rather a shift in the tasks needed to be done. For example, any job that involves managing people, applying expertise and social interaction will still be necessary, human performance in those areas can’t be matched by a machine.

However, jobs involving mortgage origination, paralegal work, accounting and back-office transaction processing can easily be wiped out by automation.

A LinkedIn post focused on the report noted that some workers are already catching on to the need to boost the skills sets. Research by the networking platform found that fewer professionals are adding accounting and financial reporting to their profiles. Instead, employees are beefing up their online resumes with more soft skills like management, leadership and customer service.

While the impact of robots and automation may be scary to some, Bill Gates says the issue is nothing to panic about.

“This is a case where Elon [Musk] and I disagree,” he said in a Wall Street Journal interview, in which he addressed Musk’s gloomy vision of the future.

According to Gates, anyone with skills in science, engineering and economics will always be in demand...

Recession Proof Industries

Warnings about a looming recession have reached a fever pitch. Inflation continues to soar, causing chaos in the stock market, and companies are starting to prepare for the worst with layoffs, hiring freezes and, in some extreme cases, rescinding job offers.

The sudden shift in labor market dynamics — after months of strong job prospects and rising wages for employees — has left many working Americans scratching their heads.

“Job prospects are going to get much worse” in the next few months, Laurence Ball, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University, tells CNBC Make It. “The question is: ‘How much worse?’”

If you’re thinking of changing roles soon, you should know that while no job is completely recession-proof, certain industries tend to fare worse than others during a downturn.

During the Great Recession, which lasted from 2007 to 2009, the construction and manufacturing sectors experienced sizable dips in employment, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s because during an economic downturn, people usually limit their discretionary spending and delay big purchases, including cars and new homes, says Karen Dynan, an economics professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the U.S. Treasury. She predicts that these industries will see similar patterns if a recession were to occur soon.  READ MORE...

Children That Don't Give Up

A raging pandemic, gun violence, climate change — as an educational psychologist, I’ve seen firsthand how the troubling events of today are taking a toll on our children.

“It’s hard to stop thinking about bad stuff,” an 11-year-old told me recently. “Sometimes I worry about waking up.”


Without the right tools to handle adversity, hopelessness can set in and kids’ overall well-being can decline. Hope is what energizes them to stay mentally strong during tough times, and it’s what sets them apart from those who give up easily.

Research shows that hopefulness can dramatically reduce childhood anxiety and depression. Hopeful kids have an inner sense of control. They view challenges and obstacles as temporary and able to be overcome, so they are more likely to thrive and help others.

Yet despite its immense power, hope is largely excluded from our parenting agendas. The good news? Hope is teachable. One of the best ways to increase this strength is by equipping children with skills to handle life’s inevitable bumps.

Here are nine science-backed ways to help kids maintain hope — especially during tough times:  READ MORE...

China Buys North Dakota Farm

A Chinese company paid $2.6 million for 300 acres of farmland in Grand Forks, North Dakota, 

sparking concerns about espionage.

A Chinese company’s purchase of farmland in North Dakota just down the road from a US Air Force base that houses sensitive drone technology has lawmakers on Capitol Hill worried about potential espionage by Beijing, according to a report.

Fufeng Group, a Shandong, China-based company that specializes in flavor enhancers and sugar substitutes, recently purchased 300 acres of farmland near Grand Forks, North Dakota, a rural area that lies about a 90-minute drive from the Canadian border.

Grand Forks is also 40 miles away from Grafton, North Dakota, where a limited liability company believed to be controlled by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates recently paid $13 million for thousands of acres of potato farmland, causing a stir among locals.

Three North Dakotans sold the land to Fufeng Group for $2.6 million, according to CNBC.

Like the Gates-linked purchase, the sale of local farmland to a Chinese company sparked a visceral reaction, according to one of the sellers, Gary Bridgeford.

That’s because the land is just a 20-minute drive from Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is believed to be the home of some of the country’s most sophisticated military drone technology.

Bridgeford told CNBC that some locals planted signs on his front yard condemning the transaction.  READ MORE...