Senator Bernie Sanders wants the American public to own half of the country’s largest AI companies. The senator said this week that he will soon introduce the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would create a public fund through a onetime 50% tax on the stock of major artificial intelligence companies. The public, in his telling, would get voting shares, board representation, and eventually a claim on the trillions of dollars that AI may generate. While that might sound, at first, like another sweeping and unlikely bill from the Vermont Independent, its timing is interesting: A day later, President…
Author: Staff Writer
When the MTA painted the subway station entrance at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue just outside Madison Square Garden in team colors to commemorate the New York Knicks’ first appearance in the NBA Finals since 1999, the blue looked perfect, but MTA’s creative team knew the orange wasn’t a match. “We are New Yorkers. We are Knicks fans. We know this didn’t feel right,” Gene Ribeiro, deputy chief customer officer for the MTA, tells Fast Company. “We just wanted it to be absolutely perfect.” It turns out achieving perfection wasn’t as easy as pulling a Pantone swatch. It required a…
Many feel it, but few say it out loud: Board recruiting isn’t working the way it should. Boards question whether they’re truly accessing new talent or simply recycling familiar names. At the same time, highly qualified leaders wonder why they’re never in the mix. Both perspectives are right. The process is hardwired to consistently surface the same people. THE NUMBERS TELL THE STORY The pattern is clear and persistent: Boards largely recruit former CEOs and CFOs who are already known within the board ecosystem. That is predictable. We’re wired to minimize risk, and “new” often gets labeled as risky. The…
“It was a dark and stormy night. In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind…” The words at the beginning of this article are, of course, from A Wrinkle in Time by Medeleine L’Engle. (They’re also wrapped in quotation marks, an indication that they aren’t original to this article.) And yet, the atmospheric and imagination-stimulating power of words can be easily stolen by others. In the age of AI? That’s more front of mind than ever. (And…
I grew up in New Jersey and raised my children there. I watched politicians make promises, raise taxes, expand government, and drive businesses and productive people out of the state. Every year it became more expensive, more corrupt, and more hostile to anyone trying to build something. The state has fallen into absolute ruin to the point where I am hesitant to visit. In a new low for the Garden State, New Jersey voters have selected Adam Hamawy as the Democratic nominee for Congress in the 12th District. The controversy surrounding his campaign stems from reports that he volunteered in…
Grocery prices keep rising, and one ingredient crucial to BLTs, salads, and fresh salsas has gotten particularly expensive. Tomato prices are up a staggering 40% compared with a year ago, according to the latest consumer price index. Fresh vegetables in general have gotten more expensive—up nearly 12% from a year ago—and prices for groceries like coffee (up 18.5%) and beef (up about 15%) have all increased. But tomatoes in particular stand out, with prices hitting $2.69 per pound in April, the highest level reported in the last 45 years. That price shock is thanks to simultaneous supply-chain disruptions: extreme weather,…
Governments always know exactly where to find soldiers during economic decline. They look for debt, unemployment, hopelessness, and young men with no future. That has always been the pattern throughout history. Rome did it. Napoleon did it. Britain did it. The United States targeted poor communities for Vietnam and Iraq. Now, Russia is openly doing the same thing by forgiving massive debts for men willing to go fight in Ukraine. Putin has now signed a decree wiping out debts up to 10 million rubles, roughly $140,000, for new military recruits and even their spouses if they sign contracts with the…
Let’s talk about the biggest fear of all employers—hiring someone who works for a competitor. Recently, this happened to me. I run a company that actively hires part-time employees. Around a third of our team works part time. One of our employees has been with us part time for five years and consistently outperforms expectations. Simply put, I couldn’t care less how many hours someone works in a day. However, when we interviewed this candidate, we found out that he worked for a competitor. He didn’t actively hide this fact—he simply didn’t think it mattered. He was wrong. It did.…
I have repeatedly warned that people need to watch Turkey. Most analysts view Turkey as simply another emerging market struggling with inflation, currency volatility, and political uncertainty. They are missing the larger picture. Turkey sits at the crossroads of Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia. When capital shifts, when energy flows change, when geopolitical alliances begin to fracture, Turkey is often standing directly in the middle. Now Turkey is negotiating with Russia to extend natural gas supply agreements beyond 2026. The discussions involve Turkey’s state energy company BOTAS and Russia’s Gazprom, with future supply volumes and contract terms still…
A planning cycle. A strategy cycle. A reorg every few years. A new tool rollout that people had time to absorb. A period of change, followed by a period of stability. That version of work is gone. Today, work moves through constant disruption and AI is rewriting jobs in real time. Economic uncertainty is keeping employees on edge. Workplace norms are being renegotiated. And employees are asking harder questions about what work should provide beyond a paycheck. This is the new operating environment. Yet many engagement strategies were built for a steadier one. Those strategies assume employees have enough capacity…