Insider Finance - Business - Robots want your job

Nicholas Carlson October 18, 2022

Hello, Insiders. I can’t get over how weird this economy is. I traveled over the weekend and the airports are completely packed. Data says flying is back to pre-pandemic levels. Clearly lots of people feel good about their finances and are willing to spend. Meanwhile, unemployment is low and many people have savings, thanks to stimulus and reduced spending during the pandemic. If those aren’t signs of a great economy then, what the hell, right?

Well, the hell is a fear of inflation that won’t stop — and that people are too willing to spend on fun goods and services right now. Because when there is too much demand for too little supply, prices keep going up. So here come the rate hikes to make borrowing more expensive. And there goes the flying, savings, and low unemployment. It’s just weird! 

I highly recommend following our economy team’s stellar coverage to keep up with all this. Now, without further ado…

The latest

• Donald Trump finally got served the $250 million New York fraud lawsuit after three weeks — and a court order. Get the latest.

• Actor Ezra Miller faces up to 26 years in prison after pleading not guilty to felony burglary and petit larceny. More on that here.

• Rolls-Royce revealed its first electric car, the $400,000 Spectre. Check out the luxurious EV.

The big story

Rachel Mendelson/Insider

For three days last month, 1,000 food-service workers at the San Francisco International Airport went on strike. During the walkout, there was nowhere to eat at the airport. 

Except, that is, at two automated coffee kiosks where robots served up espressos and green-tea lattes.

For decades, robots have been replacing (or nudging aside) human labor, senior correspondent Adam Rogers writes. They put together cars, pick stock in warehouses, vacuum floors. But at SFO, robot baristas didn't simply replace humans — they crossed a picket line.

But this isn’t just about coffee. All workers are facing increasing competition from automation and algorithms. We need to figure out how to synchronize our labor with the souls of these new machines — before things get out of hand.

Read the full story on the coming robot apocalypse here.

Top reads

Spencer Platt/Getty, Tyler Le/Insider

• The stock market crash is exposing Wall Street's biggest charlatans. The market’s plunge has unmasked the Street's biggest clowns: financial influencers and investing celebrities, writes senior correspondent Linette Lopez. Average investors are paying the price. Read her full analysis here.

• Louis Vuitton’s CEO sold his private jet after people started tracking it online. Bernard Arnault, the world’s second-richest man, is the latest billionaire to express concerns over jet tracking on social media. Now, he says, he rents private jets instead. 

• Goldman Sachs is going through another restructuring. Some insiders believe the overhaul may be CEO David Solomon’s attempt to quell an uprising from within. See the winners and losers of the latest reorganization.

• These biotech VCs are reshaping the industry’s future. Insider set out to identify up-and-coming rock stars who are taking new approaches to investing in the biotech space. We came away with a list of 16 of the brightest VCs — meet them here.

• A Portland man turned a 70-year-old double-decker bus into an Airbnb rental. Over the course of 10 months, the man spent thousands of dollars turning the bus — originally from the UK — into a tiny home. Take a look at how he did it.

Today’s sound bite

“Each day, I walked out of 30 Rock knowing there were elevator operators who were better known at NBC than I was.” 

Play along with Who Wrote What? and guess which newsworthy person wrote this.

Watch this

Insider spent five days at the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence, where we learned how army cooks are trained to feed 800 soldiers in the field.

Today's team

Nicholas Carlson (@nichcarlson), Lisa Ryan (@lisarya), and Jordan Parker Erb (@jordanparkererb).

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