Michael Estrin

But any preference for renting here collides with a stark financial reality: National surveys show that in recent decades, Swiss homeowners have been better off, at least in terms of wealth. The median net worth of a Swiss homeowner in their 30s is six times higher than that of a renter of the same age. And the wealth gap only widens with age. In t... See more

The federal payments system has been a panopticon for decades, waiting for someone with political ambitions to break down the bureaucratic firewalls protecting it, and open it up. Apparently, that has now happened. If the system transforms into a tool to arbitrarily block payments to entities whom Musk or Trump doesn’t like, which Musk has claimed ... See more

DOGE operatives—one of them reportedly a recent high school graduate—have similarly taken control of key information systems at the Office of Personnel Management, locking out high-level career civil servants. This access provides Musk’s team with detailed and highly sensitive information on millions of government employees. It also has allowed the... See more

The U.S. identified key choke points that allowed it to weaponize the world’s payment, information, and physical infrastructure to achieve its ends. Musk’s DOGE is weaponizing the U.S. government’s payment, information, and physical infrastructure in highly similar ways, carrying out an end run around the political structures that are supposed to r... See more

While everyone seems to agree there’s a housing shortage, there’s little agreement on its magnitude. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says the U.S. has a shortage of 7.3 million units, Realtor.com says 6.5 million, mortgage-finance company Fannie Mae says 4.4 million and Up for Growth, a policy group focused on the housing shortage, says 3... See more

Netflix, which is now spending $17 billion a year on programming, has added another 100 million customers since then, thanks to successes such as Bridgerton and Squid Game , as well as a crackdown on password sharing and the introduction of a cheaper, ad-supported plan. Netflix increased its profit through the first half of 2024 by 60% from a year ... See more

The canal is critical to the U.S. economy and trade. The U.S. is the largest user of the Panama Canal, with total U.S. commodity export and import containers representing about 73% of Panama Canal traffic, and 40% of all U.S. container traffic traveling through the Panama Canal every year. In all, roughly $270 billion in cargo is handled annually.

The deal includes the bulk of CK Hutchison’s ports division, which produced 20% of the conglomerates earnings before interest and tax in the first half of last year and was the company’s third-biggest business. In its most recent results, the ports units outside of China and Hong Kong produced HK$17.8 billion ($2.3 billion) in first-half revenue an... See more