Tootfinder

US wholesale prices jump 3.3% as Trump tariffs hit economy 
—  The Rise in Producer Price Index in July was the highest since February 
—  US wholesale prices jumped in July, rising 3.3 per cent from a year earlier,
in the clearest sign yet that Donald Trump's tariffs are seeping through to the American economy

US Producer Prices Rise by Most in Three Years on Services
US wholesale inflation accelerated in July by the most in three years, suggesting companies are passing along higher import costs related to tariffs.

Businesses have been eating Trump's tariffs. That's starting to change (Alicia Wallace/CNN)
https://cnn.com/2025/08/14/economy/us-ppi-wholesale-inflation-july
http://www.memeorandum.com/250814/p38#a250814p38

Stromausfälle im Osten der Ukraine
In der südostukrainischen Großstadt Krywyj Rih ist es nach russischen Angriffen mit Drohnen und mindestens einer Rakete zu Stromausfällen gekommen. "Es gab etwa 20 Einschläge", teilte der Militärverwaltungschef Olexander Wilkul bei Telegram mit. Die Wasserversorgung werde auf Generatoren umgestellt. Er warnte vor nicht ausreichendem Wasserdruck in höheren Etagen.
Der ukrainische Präsident W…
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Ukraine-Liveblog: ++ Rutte fordert von China Druck auf Putin ++
NATO-Generalsekretär Rutte hat an China, Indien und Brasilien appelliert, Druck auf Russland auszuüben - andernfalls würden Sekundärsanktionen drohen. Die EU-Länder verlängern ihren Schutz für Ukrainer bis 2027. Der Liveblog vom Dienstag zum Nachlesen.

Stock Market Today: Dow Drops After Wholesale Inflation Accelerates
Factory-gate prices rose by a much stronger-than-expected 0.9% in July
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-08-14-2025

Machine Learning for Detecting Collusion and Capacity Withholding in Wholesale Electricity Markets
Jeremy Proz, Martin Huber
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09885 https://

Machine Learning for Detecting Collusion and Capacity Withholding in Wholesale Electricity Markets
Collusion and capacity withholding in electricity wholesale markets are important mechanisms of market manipulation. This study applies a refined machine learning-based cartel detection algorithm to two cartel cases in the Italian electricity market and evaluates its out-of-sample performance. Specifically, we consider an ensemble machine learning method that uses statistical screens constructed from the offer price distribution as predictors for the incidence of collusion among electricity pro…

Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in July, much more than expected (Jeff Cox/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/14/ppi-inflation-report-july-2025-.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/250814/p31#a250814p31

Stromausfälle nach russischem Luftangriff auf Krywyj Rih
In der südostukrainischen Großstadt Krywyj Rih ist es nach russischen Angriffen mit Drohnen und mindestens einer Rakete zu Stromausfällen gekommen. "Es gab etwa 20 Einschläge", teilte der Militärverwaltungschef Olexander Wilkul bei Telegram mit. Die Wasserversorgung werde auf Generatoren umgestellt. Er warnte vor nicht ausreichendem Wasserdruck in höheren Etagen.
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Ukraine-Liveblog: Trump: Moskau sollte kein Ziel werden
US-Präsident Trump will der Ukraine keine Langstreckenraketen liefern und rät Präsident Selenskyj davon ab, Moskau oder andere Orte in Russland anzugreifen. In der Region Sumy werden offenbar 40.000 Ukrainer evakuiert. Die Entwicklungen im Liveblog:

Parspec, whose AI-powered workflow tool automates procurement processes in the construction supply chain, raised a $20M Series A led by Threshold Ventures (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/ai/construction-supply-chain-startup-parspec/

Exclusive: AI-Powered Construction Procurement Startup Lands $20M Series A 
Parspec, a startup using artificial intelligence to improve efficiency in the construction industry supply chain to help sales agents and wholesale distributors “efficiently bid and supply” construction products, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding, the company told Crunchbase News exclusively.

"As we approach the coming jobs cliff, we're entering a period where a college isn't going to be worth it for the majority of people, since AI will take over most white-collar jobs. Combined with the demographic cliff, the entire higher education system will crumble."
This is the kind of statement you don't hear that much from sub-CEO-level #AI boosters, because it's awkward for them to admit that the tech they think is improving their life is going to be disastrous for society. Or if they do admit this, they spin it like it's a good thing (don't get me wrong, tuition is ludicrously high and higher education absolutely could be improved by a wholesale reinvention, but the potential AI-fueled collapse won't be an improvement).
I'm in the "anti-AI" crowd myself, and I think the current tech is in a hype bubble that will collapse before we see wholesale replacement of white-collar jobs, with a re-hiring to come that will somewhat make up for the current decimation. There will still be a lot of fallout for higher ed (and hopefully some productive transformation), but it might not be apocalyptic.
Fun question to ask the next person who extols the virtues of using generative AI for their job: "So how long until your boss can fire you and use the AI themselves?"
The following ideas are contradictory:
1. "AI is good enough to automate a lot of mundane tasks."
2. "AI is improving a lot so those pesky issues will be fixed soon."
3. "AI still needs supervision so I'm still needed to do the full job."

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #RoundMidnight
James Allsopp & Will Glaser:
🎵 Wet Weather Special
#JamesAllsopp #WillGlaser
https://open.spotify.com/track/41ULYul2QCqnAini0iwq1J