Small Businesses Are Starting to See Sales Slow--and That's Not Likely to Change

After months of shouldering increased costs, customers are pulling back.

That's according to small businesses surveyed in May by The Wall Street Journal. Some say that sales have decreased over the past few weeks--and the majority aren't optimistic about things getting better anytime soon. More than half (56 percent) of the 600 small businesses surveyed say that they expect economic conditions to worsen over the next year--up from 42 percent in April. READ MORE

Tech Leaders Can Do More to Avoid Unintended Consequences

Ten years ago, in a small hotel room in Helsinki, Finland, a young tech entrepreneur sat down with a pen and paper and calculated that one of his inventions was responsible for wasting the equivalent of more than a million human lifetimes every day. The realization made him feel sick. That entrepreneur’s name is Aza Raskin, and he’s the inventor of the “infinite scroll,” the feature on our phone that keeps us endlessly scrolling through content with the simple swipe of a finger. READ MORE

Code-Writing AI Points to the Future of Computers

Microsoft just showed how artificial intelligence could find its way into many software applications—by writing code on the fly.

At the Microsoft Build developer conference today, the company’s chief technology officer, Kevin Scott, demonstrated an AI helper for the game Minecraft. The non-player character within the game is powered by the same machine learning technology Microsoft has been testing for auto-generating software code. The feat hints at how recent advances in AI could change personal computing in years to come by replacing interfaces that you tap, type, and click to navigate into interfaces that you simply have a conversation with. READ MORE

Musk, Twitter 'fireworks' could come at annual shareholder meeting

One Wall Street analyst is expecting "fireworks" between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter's board at the social media giant's upcoming annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

"Twitter will be holding its annual shareholder meeting this Wednesday and will surely kick off some more fireworks between Musk and the Twitter Board," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to clients on Monday evening. "The elephant in the room at the Twitter shareholder meeting will clearly be the Musk $44 billion deal price for the company with shareholders encouraged by the Board to vote in favor of this inked deal." READ MORE

US growth seen outpacing China’s for first time since 1976

China’s coronavirus lockdowns mean its economic growth may undershoot the US for the first time since 1976, in a role reversal with potential political reverberations in both Beijing and Washington.

The world’s second-largest economy will grow just 2% this year, Bloomberg Economics wrote in a report Thursday. By comparison, US gross domestic product will increase 2.8% this year, Bloomberg Economics predicts. READ MORE

Majority of CEOs preparing for a recession as sky-high inflation persists

The economic outlook is rapidly darkening in corporate America. 

More than two-thirds of CEOs – 68% – believe that the Federal Reserve's war on red-hot inflation could tip the economy into a recession over the next few years, according to a new survey from the Conference Board. While a majority of executives believe the downturn will be relatively mild, 11% are worried that aggressive tightening by the U.S. central bank could trigger a deep, "challenging" recession.  READ MORE

Chicken wings for $34?

With a gallon of milk up about 25% since before the pandemic, and retail bacon 35% higher, it’s hard to imagine how US food inflation could get any worse. But evidence suggests that even higher prices are on the horizon.

Consumers have actually been shielded so far from the full brunt of soaring expenses that are facing producers, distributors and small businesses like restaurants. But they can only hold back for so much longer. READ MORE

At Wells Fargo, a Quest to Increase Diversity Leads to Fake Job Interviews

Joe Bruno, a former executive in the wealth management division of Wells Fargo, had long been troubled by the way his unit handled certain job interviews.

For many open positions, employees would interview a “diverse” candidate — the bank’s term for a woman or person of color — in keeping with the bank’s yearslong informal policy. But Bruno noticed that often, the so-called diverse candidate would be interviewed for a job that had already been promised to someone else. READ MORE