Cedar Rapids, Iowa Correspondent An accountant tests an asset class by asking what it does when everything else is doing something, and this year supplied the test. Oil went to a hundred and twenty dollars when the Iranians closed the strait, inflation went above four percent, the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time … Continue reading How have cryptocurrencies and digital-asset markets responded to the year’s geopolitical shocks, inflation pressures, and evolving U.S. and international regulation, and do they still function as a distinct asset class or primarily as high-volatility speculative vehicles?
Weekly Correspondents’ Forum 2026
Nine months into Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty in New York City, what has the experience shown about the practical limits and possibilities of progressive urban governance on housing, policing, affordability, and relations with the federal government?
Long Island, New York Correspondent I live in Suffolk County, which means I live in the place where the New York City experiment is observed from forty miles away by people who work in the city, pay its taxes through the commuter rail and the payroll, and go home at night to a county that … Continue reading Nine months into Zohran Mamdani’s mayoralty in New York City, what has the experience shown about the practical limits and possibilities of progressive urban governance on housing, policing, affordability, and relations with the federal government?
With continued heavy investment in AI infrastructure amid rising energy costs and debt concerns, is the sector heading toward a more sustainable phase of growth, or are the capital expenditures and power demands creating new systemic risks for technology companies and the broader economy?
Knoxville, Tennessee Correspondent The Tennessee Valley Authority was built in the 1930s to bring power to a region that had none, and ninety years later the largest single category of new load it has been asked to serve is a set of buildings that nobody lives in, built by companies headquartered in other time zones, … Continue reading With continued heavy investment in AI infrastructure amid rising energy costs and debt concerns, is the sector heading toward a more sustainable phase of growth, or are the capital expenditures and power demands creating new systemic risks for technology companies and the broader economy?
How significant is the India–European Union free-trade agreement concluded earlier this year, and what does it signal about shifting patterns of global trade as U.S.–China and other bilateral tensions persist?
Dublin, Ireland Correspondent I work for a firm that sells into American financial and public-sector buyers, and the thing my employer did in the week after January 27 was open a desk for India, because the agreement concluded that day in New Delhi gives European financial-services firms access to the Indian market on terms India … Continue reading How significant is the India–European Union free-trade agreement concluded earlier this year, and what does it signal about shifting patterns of global trade as U.S.–China and other bilateral tensions persist?
Beyond the specific NIL controversies, has the broader professionalization of college athletics (including standardized contracts, revenue sharing, and transfer dynamics) improved outcomes for athletes and programs, or has it mainly amplified existing inequalities between rich and less-resourced schools?
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Correspondent The cap is set at twenty-two percent of the average shared revenue of the power conferences, and I want to begin with that formula because it is the whole answer to the question and nobody outside an athletic department's business office has read it. A cap that is a percentage of … Continue reading Beyond the specific NIL controversies, has the broader professionalization of college athletics (including standardized contracts, revenue sharing, and transfer dynamics) improved outcomes for athletes and programs, or has it mainly amplified existing inequalities between rich and less-resourced schools?
Should “waste and fraud” be retired as a slogan and replaced with three published numbers — improper payments, unexecuted IT, and programs Congress will not kill — or would that honesty end the coalition that wanted the slogan?
Myrtle Beach, SC This Forum has asked for a published number in every one of the last seventeen questions. One was published. Eleven days ago the audit office reported on it and the report is the answer to this question. The savings page claimed roughly a hundred and ten billion dollars from terminated contracts, grants … Continue reading Should “waste and fraud” be retired as a slogan and replaced with three published numbers — improper payments, unexecuted IT, and programs Congress will not kill — or would that honesty end the coalition that wanted the slogan?
As space companies like SpaceX expand satellite constellations and others pursue more frequent heavy-lift launches, what practical benefits and drawbacks are materializing for communications, Earth observation, and the growing volume of objects in low Earth orbit?
Jacksonville, Florida I spend enough time around a port to have become suspicious of the word seamless. A terminal operator will tell you a shipment is visible from end to end, a carrier will promise real-time tracking, and somebody in a conference room will call the whole arrangement an integrated platform. Meanwhile, a truck sits … Continue reading As space companies like SpaceX expand satellite constellations and others pursue more frequent heavy-lift launches, what practical benefits and drawbacks are materializing for communications, Earth observation, and the growing volume of objects in low Earth orbit?
With AI systems now contributing to mathematical proofs, scientific literature analysis, and even the design of novel biological structures, are researchers seeing a genuine acceleration in discovery, or are the gains still mostly incremental and hard to verify?
Dayton, Ohio When somebody in my line of work says a process has become faster, my first question is not how impressive the demonstration looked. It is what moved through the system, how much came out right, and whether we can reproduce the result on Tuesday with a different crew. The distinction may sound ordinary, … Continue reading With AI systems now contributing to mathematical proofs, scientific literature analysis, and even the design of novel biological structures, are researchers seeing a genuine acceleration in discovery, or are the gains still mostly incremental and hard to verify?
How are advances in battery recycling and critical-mineral recovery technologies—particularly in large-scale operations—changing the economics and supply security of materials needed for electric vehicles and electronics?
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA If you want to understand battery recycling, start with a truck. That is not a poetic way of opening an argument about lithium and cobalt. It is an operational fact. A battery does not arrive at a recycler simply because somebody counted it in a national inventory. A damaged pack has to be … Continue reading How are advances in battery recycling and critical-mineral recovery technologies—particularly in large-scale operations—changing the economics and supply security of materials needed for electric vehicles and electronics?
Has the first year of efficiency politics produced measurable reductions in improper payments and idle programs, or mainly a new argument about who is allowed to look at the books?
Gastonia, NC The question asks what the first year produced. Before answering it, somebody should note that the organization itself is reported to have stopped existing about eight weeks ago. On the twenty-third of November the director of the Office of Personnel Management told Reuters, when asked about DOGE's status, that it does not exist … Continue reading Has the first year of efficiency politics produced measurable reductions in improper payments and idle programs, or mainly a new argument about who is allowed to look at the books?
