The city of Austin in Texas has launched a one-year universal basic income (UBI) program for low-income families in partnership with a California-based non-profit called UpTogether. The program will pay $1,000 per month to 85 families at risk of losing their homes. The program was first suggested in a...
A new bill introduced in the United States Congress aims to re-create the convenience and privacy of cash in digital form by establishing a digital dollar. The Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act, or simply the ‘ECASH’ act, would direct the Treasury Department, not the Federal Reserve, to develop and...
President Joe Biden announced sanctions on Russian crude oil [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/world/europe/biden-bans-russian-oil.html] on March 8. The formal embargo comes in the wake of rising gas prices in the US, as an increasing number of corporations refuse to import Russian crude. The Cost...
More and more multinational companies are suspending their services in Russia in response to President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Brands like McDonald’s, Shell, and PepsiCo, which had built relationships with the country over decades are now abruptly exiting the country whether due to their own corporate responsibility standards...
Moderna is planning to replicate the success of mRNA-based vaccines for the seasonal flu. The company announced on July 7 that it gave the new seasonal flu vaccine to the first set of volunteers in a clinical trial. The 180-people study will “evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity” of its...
A new report by Galaxy Digital has revealed that Bitcoin mining consumes approximately half of the energy consumed by the entire global traditional banking system every year. The research estimated that the global Bitcoin network consumes 113.89 terawatts per hour (TWh) of energy, compared to conventional banking’s 263....
