I'm pretty sure not one of these crypto companies could obtain, much less keep a banking license (at least, not in a proper country where you can't just buy your way in).

And you would be wrong. The first stablecoin bank, backed by billionaires who backed trump, was just approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency after a rigorous two month review (that's sarcasm in case you missed it).

Supposedly this "bank" will have to adhere to money laundering rules, but as we've seen with other digital money, that goes out the window because who needs regulations.

Most people are forced into relatively sedentary careers with long commutes

Because working from home would be completely different with the refrigerator only feet away or not having to do much more than roll out of bed.

Was it whitewashing to pull statues and rename schools?

Why would we want to honor traitors who wanted to keep slavery and who lost the battle?

How much have U.S. farmers grown this year which will sit and rot because not a single bean has been purchased by China due to tariffs?

While growing food isn't the main issue, distribution is, how many tons of food goes to waste each year because of price supports or deliberate over production due to government programs?

Wait, you are saying you need a permit to burn tires? ,/EM>

If you don't want to dump all the burning toxins into the air, yes. Or don't you breathe where you come from?

I doubt Trump wants war, he's a businessman, not a soldier.

Yes, you are correct. The draft dodger is not a soldier and has little regard for the military, criticizing Gold Star families and mocking those who died.

However, the reason nothing will happen while he's around is because he admires Putin. Remember when he held up a picture of he and Putin after the Alaska meeting and said he was going to sign it and send it to Putin? It's the same reason he has not put real sanctions on Russia despite the Senate having the bill to act as a sledgehammer. Trump himself said back in July that Putin has 50 days to make a deal. Here we are 88 days after that statement and nothing has been done. He then followed up with a statement in the beginning of August where he said, "We have about eight days. ... We're going to put sanctions," he said. And yet, here we are, two months later and nothing.

Anything that would make Putin look bad, Trump won't do. He wants to do business in the country so any sanctions or military activity is the last thing he would do. His usual word salad is all we'll get.

Correction. A small price for accepting genocide.

I own, but do not operate, a few IT companies that manage corporations in the $600MM-$1B receivables range.

Based on our own help desk ticket software, our clients have opened 40% fewer tickets since ChatGPT was rolled out to every desk and phone. 40%. I expect another 40% drop (total 80%) by next year as end users just manage things themselves.

I won't downsize as the tickets aren't really generating revenue as much as headaches. One of my engineers had a broken PDF file that took her 6 hours to fix, and the end user spent 6 days trying to fix it themselves with Ai.

But -- the basic stuff? Reboot your computer stuff? Email rejected because you mistyped a domain name stuff?

You don't need a human, and we would probably have outsource that stuff to India anyway next year if not for ChatGPT etc.

I spend quite a bit on Discord server services, but I'm out.

GFY, Discord and governments, for mandating this bullshit nonsense.

The role of middle managers is to execute the plans of upper management. Without middle management the upper management would have to deal with the workers and all the minutiae while at the same time trying to keep the company running.

As Forbes said, middle managers are the overlooked leaders who hold the organization together.

Sharper Image was never that great. Just overpriced Chinese-made products made to look nice.

Agreed. It's not the same, but similar issues remain. Investors, both from the stock market and direct, are the ones providing the money. So long as companies keep buying the products, everything is fine.

What has to happen is AI, in all its forms, needs to get its act together. While the market can stay irrational longer than you or I, you, as the company, need to show something for the billions being sent your way. Personally, I believe there will be advances from all this computing power. However, it's going to take time to sift the chaff from the wheat. Once someone, or someones, finds the right combination of software and hardware, that's when it will get interesting. How long that will take is the question and whether investors are willing to keep handing over their money.

The difference is these companies aren't necessarily going into debt to keep running. They just keep going back to investors who hand over their money.

Also, those other companies in the 90s used the debt to purchase and install physcal equipment needed for the upcoming expansion. That they sabotaged themselves with high prices and slow rollouts is the main reason for their failure.