Marketplace All-in-One

Of course, we mean "What would Kevin do?" — Kevin Warsh, that is, President Donald Trump's nominee for Federal Reserve chair. And it's a question plenty of investors are asking as they try to feel out his views on inflation and Fed independence. We'll unpack. Plus, we'll head to Venezuela, where acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed a law last week opening the oil industry there to private ownership after two decades.

Layoff announcements have been coming fast and furious: 16,000 at Amazon; up to 30,000 at UPS; more at Dow Chemical, Pinterest, T-Mobile, and more. These latest workforce reductions won’t show up in the January jobs report, but they do suggest a labor market under increasing stress. This morning, we'll dig in. But first, tech companies like Google are considering putting power-hungry data centers used to fuel AI into space. What would that look like?

From the BBC World Service: President Donald Trump announced tariff cuts on goods imported from India and said that, in return, India promised not to buy any more Russian oil. But when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the tariff reduction, he didn’t mention anything about Russia or its oil. What gives? Then, following the U.S. military action in January, a bill currently before Venezuela's National Assembly aims open its state-dominated oil industry to foreign investment.

In his new book, Wall Street Journal tech columnist Christopher Mims offers a guide for getting the most out of the technology. He's compiled two dozen "Laws of AI" to shed light on the best ways to use these generative tools.

Yesterday we talked about how individuals can improve their productivity with AI, and today we're digging into how organizations can use — or sometimes misuse — it.

Productivity — the rate at which companies make what they make, or do what they do — has been a reliably bright spot in this economy. But wage growth hasn’t kept up. In this episode, what’s hampering compensation growth while overall productivity rises at a clip? Plus: Is AI actually to blame for recent layoffs? Is rising global debt bad news? And, the partial government shutdown will delay crucial employment data.

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