Banks in the U.S. have plenty to celebrate these days, from record profits and higher stock prices to a strong economy and easier regulation. One thing they don’t need is an added discount on their deposit insurance — a crucial buffer that should be reinforced when times are good.

For the better part of a century, U.S. bank customers have ...Read more

In late August, Texas and Florida became the latest states to limit the use of Flock cameras, an artificial intelligence-powered network of automated traffic surveillance devices, in response to growing concerns about their misuse by law enforcement. But even in the consumer technology sphere, other digital surveillance devices pose similar ...Read more

Political deepfakes have marred elections worldwide. Deepfakes have influenced presidential elections in Argentina, affected parliamentary races in Slovakia, and spread misinformation widely.

In contrast, deceptive deepfakes have not swamped American politics. This is despite the easy availability of rapidly improving AI deepfake technology. It...Read more

A recent national poll conducted by Harvard University revealed that young Americans are a pessimistic bunch. People between ages 18 and 29 view inflation and the rising cost of housing as national crises. More than a quarter of young adults believe they’ll end up worse off financially than their parents. And only 13% say the country is on the...Read more

This year, a life-saving federal policy turns 50 years old. For half a century, the Hyde amendment has protected women, girls, and unborn children from taxpayer-funded abortions. In contrast, Roe v. Wade collapsed under the weight of its own bad reasoning just shy of its 50th “birth” day. How fitting.

In the wake of the devastation he knew ...Read more

The drumbeat for regulating artificial intelligence is growing louder by the day, largely due to a coordinated campaign that magnifies the technology’s risks. It ignores the critical question: Can we regulate effectively without causing a disaster for our technology leadership and economy?

That is not to say, however, that some form of ...Read more

The fraught relationship between Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris is the stuff of reality TV.

With their Hollywood looks and unbridled ambition, the two San Francisco-spawned Democrats have spent decades in tacit competition, ascending to the heights of California politics while still managing to avoid direct confrontation.

That could change in ...Read more

Although I founded and run an initiative that promotes endangered languages, I actually agree with the premise of a recent New Yorker article titled “ Sometimes It’s O.K. to Let a Language Die.” It is not practical for millions of people to learn their ancestors’ languages. This is true in California — which is home to dozens of ...Read more

The Fulcrum is committed to nurturing the next generation of journalists. We asked Abbey Osborn, a Fall Fulcrum Fellow, to share what democracy means to her and her view of its current health.

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When I think of democracy, I picture the Statue of Liberty, her torch lit, arm outstretched, for those who seek the protections offered in the ...Read more

The most important measure to watch in the campaign’s final weeks is how Democratic candidates are performing among voters who disapprove of President Donald Trump.

Many are not yet hitting the benchmarks among those voters they need to put away their races — especially in red-leaning states. But the challenge Trump’s decline presents to ...Read more

In November’s election, California voters will decide on a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state’s roughly 250 billionaires — Proposition 40. The tax could raise an estimated $100 billion, with 90% set aside for healthcare and the remainder for food assistance and education.

This is exactly the financial help that Los Angeles and ...Read more

Radical greens and other cheerleaders for central planning are mewling about the Trump administration’s new fuel economy standards for automakers. Yet the reforms are a necessary response to Biden-era efforts to undermine the marketplace by limiting options for American consumers.

On Monday, the White House relaxed stringent fuel economy ...Read more

As the Trump administration’s deportation campaign continues, the nation’s elected leaders have a moral obligation to ensure there’s rigorous oversight when someone is killed or injured by a federal immigration agent.

Congress has not entirely ignored that responsibility. Republican-led committees held oversight hearings in February ...Read more

Proposition 41 is a constitutional amendment billed as a way to add transparency and accountability to ballot measures for special taxes.

Voters should beware. Prop. 41 is supported by Building a Better California, which is funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and other CEOs and entrepreneurs. These people have created Prop. 41 and ...Read more

"They're not worth the paper they're printed on."

The speaker was media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who had accepted a sheaf of guarantees of editorial independence for the revered Times of London and the Sunday Times in order to secure government approval to take over the newspapers in 1981.

Among Murdoch's undertakings were that the newspapers' ...Read more

California’s healthcare system is in a code blue moment. Federal and state budget cuts threaten healthcare for millions. Costs are skyrocketing. Doctors, nurses and hospitals are all stretched thin, and patient care isn’t getting any better.

“Do no harm” is the core ethical principle of medicine. Yet Proposition 40 — the billionaire ...Read more

The juxtaposition was striking. On stage was Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president, addressing the United Nations General Assembly and meeting with President Donald Trump less than a year after both considered her somewhat of a pariah. Her old boss, Nicolás Maduro, was sitting in a jail cell in Brooklyn a few miles away awaiting ...Read more

One of the most important elections in recent Latin American history will take place Sunday in Brazil. Incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has recently been emphasizing the issue of national sovereignty. One reason: The challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, has the strong backing of the Trump administration — and the U.S. has been ...Read more

The mistrial declared on Sept. 4 in the case of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who strangled her three children while, her lawyers argued, in the grip of postpartum psychosis, has forced the country to confront postpartum mental illness and the gaping holes in how we care for it. A jury deliberated seven days and could not agree on ...Read more

If artificial intelligence leads eventually—or suddenly—to the extinction of humankind, we can’t say we weren’t warned. Writers, scientists, academics and philosophers have been speculating since at least the middle of the 19th century about the possibility that our machines could become smarter and more powerful than we are and could ...Read more