LeBron James had another decision to announce. Turns out, it was an ad.
The Los Angeles Lakers star teased that he would have something to say Tuesday. The decision reference is a nod to how he announced in July 2010 that he was joining the Miami Heat.
It was supposed to come out at noon Eastern, but Hennessy the cognac brand that James has been partners with for some time made the announcement public about 90 minutes ahead of schedule. James’ training schedule for the day changed, the brand said, necessitating the change in release plans.
This fall, I’m going to be taking my talents to Hennessy V.S.O.P, James said in the clip. Even the wording he used in that announcement mirrored how he announced that he was joining the Heat 15 years ago with his infamous take my talents to South Beach line.
Hennessy announced that it would be releasing a limited edition orange bottle featuring James’ name on the label and his signature crowning gesture a nod to his King James moniker. Where the first moment marked a pivotal career move, this second decision celebrates a creative reunion and shared cultural legacy, Hennessy said in the release announcing the move.
James teased the campaign by posting on X that he would be making the decision of all decisions.” The short video shows him walking toward a chair, then taking a seat opposite another man seated a few feet away mildly reminiscent of the setup for his first decision when he sat opposite broadcaster Jim Gray for a televised announcement of the news that he was joining the Heat.
Social media went wild with speculation after the Monday post, as would be expected. James the NBA’s all-time leading scorer turns 41 in December and is not only the NBA’s oldest current player but also is about to set a record by appearing in his 23rd season in the league. He is not under contract past this season, which prompted obvious wondering if this would be how he announces a retirement plan.
Ticket prices for the Lakers final regular season game in April soared on Monday on secondary markets, with fans willing to spend big money just in case James does decide that this season is his last.
There were also many guesses on social media correct ones, it turned out that the latest decision would be James participating in an ad campaign of some sort.
I like my decision, James says at the end of the ad.
Theres a double whammy hitting the U.S. alcohol industry lately: Americans are drinking less, while foreigners have soured on our exported spirits amid higher tariffs. Those dynamics have worsened a crisis thats already seen some distilleries go out of business this year and thousands of jobs eliminated.
Exports of U.S. spirits to Canada plunged by 85% in the second quarter from a year ago, marking the steepest declines among four key markets, according to data released Monday by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DSCUS). Overall, exports of American spirits fell 9% in the second quarter as U.S. spirits makers pay the price of persistent trade tensions.
Particularly problematic for U.S. spirits makers is the double-digit decline in exports to each of four key markets that represent 70% of total exports by value: the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
After a record year for U.S. spirits exports in 2024, this steep slump in exports in the second quarter is very troubling for U.S. distillers, Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the spirits council, said in a statement. Theres a growing concern that our international consumers are increasingly opting for domestically produced spirits or imports from countries other than the U.S., signaling a shift away from our great American spirits brands.”
This data shows the extent of the effect of Canadas retaliatory tariffs on U.S. spirits, along with the decision by liquor stores in many provinces to yank American brands from their shelves altogether.
While Canada did remove its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. spirits last month, drinkers there may have found other options that are more appealing to their palettes. In April, for example, sales of U.S. spirits plummeted 68%, though sales of Canadian and other imported spirits rose about 3.6% each, according to DSCUS.
TARIFFS RIPPLE THROUGH WHISKEY COUNTRY
The spirits industry has emerged as a perhaps unlikely victim of President Donald Trumps aggressive tariff policy that he embarked on this spring. And thats reverberating through the heart of Americas whiskey country, where the international market has become especially crucial especially as Americans have cut back on consumption. Tennessee led the country with spirits exports of $934 million in 2024, followed by Kentucky with $751 million, according to DSCUS.
The plummet in exports is only part of the problem for American whiskey distillers.
Through April of this year, whiskey distillers had produced 78 million proof gallons, a 28% decrease from the same period last year and the lowest level since 2019, according to figures from the Treasury Departments 2025 monthly national statistics report and reporting by The Lexington Herald Leader. Whats more, American whiskey inventories have tripled since 2012, according to DSCUS, which means these distillers are sitting on a lot of product.
Combined, these factors have spelled trouble. Big conglomerates like Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve, have slashed jobs by double digits or, in the case of Diageo, halted production altogether at two of its whiskey distilleries in Tennessee and Texas. Kentucky Owl, which is owned by Stoli Group, filed for bankruptcy protection.
Whats more, brands that might not be household namesUncle Nearest, Limestone Farms Distillery, Garrard County Distillery, and Luca Marianohave also faced problems ranging from bankruptcy to shutting down production to lawsuits related to millions of dollars in debts.
AMERICANS ABSTAINING
Another factor upending the spirits industry is that Americans are laying off booze like never before. Only 54% of U.S. adults say they consume alcohol, according to an annual poll released in August, the lowest level since Gallup began tracking drinking habits in 1939. The decline has been especially steep recently: In 2022, 67% of Americans reported drinking alcohol.
Slowing demand for alcohol domestically means that its critically important that U.S. distillers have the certainty of zero-for-zero tariffs with key export markets, Swonger said.
The spirits council is urging President Trump to reconsider his tariff stancesomething elected politicians from affected states havent been so universally vocal about.
TARIFFS AND POLITICS
While Kentuckys top leadersDemocratic Governor Andy Beshear, along with Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paulcame together in a rare act of bipartisanship in March to push back on Trumps tariffs, the same hasnt happened in Tennessee. Republican Governor Bill Lee backed Trumps tariff policy in the spring and hasnt been quoted on the impact to his states spirits industry more recently.
In a 25-year span, the U.S. has seen the number of distillers explode from about 60 to more than 3,100 today in whats been an amazing growth story, Swonger tells Fast Company. And the industry thrives best with a zero-for-zero tariff policyzero tariffs on imports, zero tariffs on exportssomething the council is hopeful President Trump will be able to achieve once again with key trading partners, while furthering his goals to reduce the trade deficit.
That might seem counterintuitive because tariffs on imported spirits could theoretically provide U.S. distillers with a competitive advantage, Swonger says. But the current 15% tariff imposed on imports of all spirits from the European Union, for example, has a ripple effect on restaurants, retailers, distributors, bartenders, and consumers. We want to compete for taste, he adds.
The council is optimistic that Trump will successfully navigate trade talks to alleviate the uncertainty and lack of predictability currently facing the industryincluding in a highly anticipated meeting between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney this week. Thos talks might help ease the iciness thats seen many state-owned liquor stores in various Canadian provinces continue to abstain from carrying American spirits altogether.
Thats unfortunate, Swonger says of the current dynamic. The emotions in Canada are high, and we hope the prime minister and president have a good meeting.
The launch of a digital art department at upscale auction house Christies was precisely as well-publicized as its eventual shuttering was devoid of fanfare.
On March 11, 2021, Christies made history as the first major auction house to sell art in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT). Digital artist Beeple managed to offload his massive mosaic, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, for a whopping $69 million, generating hundreds of astonished headlines and getting those three letters, NFT, in front of untold scads of early-adopter eyeballs. It was the sale heard ’round the world, a starter pistol kicking off the NFT gold rush.
Cut to last month, when Christies quietly closed its digital art department. It was as if the moment when NFTs briefly became the molten core of culture, tech, and commerce had never happened at allas if the vague memory of surly apes with unconscionable price tags had just been a fever dream. There may be a lesson, however, in examining how quickly the hype cooled on NFTsespecially considering what the market has evolved into in the years since.
Here comes the boom
For those who may have forgottenor never bothered to learnNFTs are unique digital certificates stored on a blockchain, proving ownership or authenticity for an array of items, including art. Unlike the typical crypto asset, where each Bitcoin or Ethereum is identical and equal, these tokens are not interchangeable. Hence, they aresay it with menon-fungible.
Though the first-ever NFTa short, looping generative animation called Quantumwas created in 2014, the technology only started making waves a few years later, with the arrival of CryptoKitties. Minted on the Ethereum blockchain, CryptoKitties were playfully animated feline NFTs, designed not only to collect and trade, but also to breed new kitties with inherited traits, lending them a gamified aspect that proved to be a game-changer.
We saw all the craziness going on at that time with ICOs [initial coin offerings] and we said, ‘Hey, look, not everything has to be a coin, recalls Roham Gharegozlou, CEO and cofounder of Dapper Labs, the pioneering NFT company behind CryptoKitties and other digital collectibles. CryptoKitties was the first time we showed that crypto could be a lot more than just currency, and it attracted the attention of a lot of people who saw the potential of digital ownership as applied to these massive, billion-fan communities like the NBA, the NFL or Disney.
By the time the notorious Beeple auction took place, Dapper had collaborations in the works with all three companies, and had already launched NBA Top Shot, turning video clips from NBA games into NFTs. One such moment, a gnarly LeBron James dunk from February 2021, went for $208,000, a headline-worthy sum that preceded the art worlds own NFT coming-out party by about three weeks. It was official: NFTs were the Next Big Thing. Soon enough, fashion houses, entertainment companies, and more major brands wanted in. As did the speculative set.
Among the names most associated with NFTs is Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). Launched in April 2021 by the four pseudonymous founders of Yuga Labs, the project consisted of 10,000 singular cartoon apes, stylized to evoke esoteric personality types. On the surface, the apes were similar to CryptoKitties, but unlike that venture, Yuga marketed BYAC as an exclusive club. Those willing to pay prices that started art $190 in the early days received promises of perks like merch drops and a private Discord, along with access to special events. They also got to feel like they shared space on an ever-unfurling red carpet with celebrities like Justin Bieber and Serena Williams, who started touting their newfound Apes as status symbols.
As consumer interest in NFTs soared, so did the value of Ethereum and the tokens on its blockchain. The prices of some Bored Apes skyrocketed from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands in a matter of months. Green-eyed investors started tracking their value like stocks. By the end of 2021, the trading volume of NFTs altogether reportedly surpassed $13 billion.
Id been looking into these kinds of things for years, and then suddenly my barista was asking about NFTs, says Merav Ozair, an expert on responsible innovation and the founder of Emerging Technologies Mastery, a Web3 consultancy shop. Everyone wanted to know about it and how they could benefit from it. People from every industry suddenly came to me with questions, and then I understood this had become much more than it was supposed to be.
Omar Kholief, a curator, professor, and author of the book Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs, had a similar experience during the NFT feeding frenzy of 2021.
It was not surprising that [the Beeple sale] would make news. What shook me, however, was the vast speculation around this sale, and the number of start-ups professing to be specialists in NFTs all of a sudden, who wanted to enlist my knowledge, labor and support, Kholief says. I was being offered jobs by company after companyand today, well, none of them exist.
Things fall apart
At their mainstream peak, NFTs were everywhere and could seemingly be anything. Rock band Kings of Leon released an NFT album. Reese Witherspoons production company Hello Sunshine made a deal to adapt NFTs into movies and TV shows. (To date, no Hello Sunshine NFT adaptations have seen the light of day.) Author Neil Strauss released a book as an NFT, and an NFT of New York Times writer Kevin Rooses column about NFTs sold for $560,000.
The cumulative effect of so much all-in hype from high places was that anyone tuned into pop culture at the time might have strted to feel like a schmuck for not diving in, wallet first. Of course, many holdouts eventually saw their hesitancy validated, once it turned out these digital assets were not as sturdy an investment at the time as the loudest hype-peddlers portrayed them.
Everyone jumped on the bandwagon, causing market saturation supremely quickly, as well as confusion and boredom, Kholief says. Because the mouthpieces at the front of the companies had not a clue what an NFT actually was.
When the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates in March 2022 to fight pandemic inflation, it lowered investor confidence in crypto. Prices of tokens fell sharply as more hikes followed, alongside geopolitical chaos including a then-new war between Russia and Ukraine. A major downturn in the crypto market had begun, one that would peak with the November 2022 crash of FTX. By that point, NFT trading volume for the year had collapsed by 97%.
And where were the celebrities whod proudly and quite publicly shown off their Bored Apes? By December 2022, when most BYAC tokens were worth a fraction of what their owners paid for them, several bold-face names were listed in a class action lawsuit against Yuga Labs. Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Post Malone, and many others were alleged to have participated in a scheme to artificially increase the interest in and price of Bored Ape NFTs without disclosing the nature, source, and amount of any compensation paid, directly or indirectly, in exchange for the endorsement.
Even before the lawsuit, which was dismissed on October 1, though, celebrities had pumped the brakes on their NFT enthusiasm. As quickly as the decibel-shattering hype had begun, it was over.
It had already started to wind down, but after FTX, people decided they werent touching this space anymore, says Ozair. They figured, Maybe all these NFTs are just a scam.
In it for the long term
The NFT market collapsed for many reasons, but chief among them were excessive hype and rapid expansion.
It was definitely too much too soon, Dapper Labs Gharegozlou says of peak NFT hype. Because crypto is this odd industry where, even though the technology was immature for many years, there was opportunity to make money, so that brought a rush of people in, whereas with most new technologies, people leave them alone until they’re a lot more mature.
What had started as a new frontier in digital ownership quickly got conflated with a faddish money-printing machine. As the dust settled in 2023, it became clear that just because an image was digital and unique didnt make it inherently valuableand also that maybe Starbucks didnt need an NFT program, something the company finally conceded in early 2024.
So, what might the NFT market look like in maturity? Over time, a smaller, more pragmatic set of use cases has emerged among collectors and various fandoms. Gaming companies are figuring out how to better integrate NFTs in their open worlds, and fashion brands like Louis Vuitton are tying (wildly expensive) physical garments to their NFTs. Meanwhile, regulatory changes like this years GENIUS Act are helping to firm up cryptos infrastructure, making the waters safer for consumers. NFTs now trade in smaller volumes, to more niche audiences, with the speculative crowd mostly having moved on to things like meme coins.
Dapper Labs had found success with NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day prior to peak NFT hype, but the company only unveiled its Disney collaboration, Disney Pinnacle, in November 2023a year after the bottom fell out of the market, when people were reassessing NFTs. The turn in public opinion apparently had an impact on the companys efforts to launch a new venture.
It sort of reset expectations, Gharegozlou says. We had to approach things from a very cautious standpoint, because we wanted our customers as well as our partnersin the case of Disneyto know that we’re in this for the long term.
The team at Dapper Labs moved thoughtfully and slowly as it created a line of collectible digital pins for various Disney IP, free from the speculative craze that enveloped previous projects. Disney Pinnacle seems focused on serving fans reasonably priced collectibles, while inspiring deep-pocked collectors to bid tens of thousands on limited drops. (NBA Top Shot also still produces NFTs that occasionally fetch six figures on the market.) As the Disney fandom embraces Pinnacle, Disney+ has harnessed these digital pins as a perk for subscribers. Its a hint of how a more grounded, practical market for NFTs might play out in the future.
What can the NFT boom tell us about AI?
As NFTs settle into their niche within the greater crypto ecosystem, its important to remember what happened when they were previously in the global spotlight. Silicon Valley, after all, appears to be making similar mistakes with artificial intelligence. While many have compared the AI craze to the dot-com bubble, it also closely resembles the NFT boom.
At their 2021 height, NFTs thrived on novelty over utility. They were a shiny new concept that could not maintain mass interest when the hype died down. A similar phenomenon now plagues AI. Nearly three years after Chat GPTs arrival, the incorporation of AI in any product or service is still meant to signal valueeven if, in practice, most shoehorned-in AI components tend to just make consumers want to opt out. The market is now willing to bet billions on, say, an energy real estate investment trust, seemingly because AI is involved at all, rather than because its involved in a particularly useful or innovative way.
Beyond prizing novelty over utility, the executives touting AI the loudest have been over-promising what the technology can deliver. Instead of emphasizing the practical use cases of today, they are claiming AI will cure cancer tomorrow, for starters.
There is a lot of overpromising, Ozair says.When Sam Altman says GPT-5 is like having PhDs in your pocket for every discipline, that is false advertising. It doesn’t have that capability. The fact that it got a gold medal for mathematics and physics [at the Olympiad] doesn’t say anything about what it can actually do.
For all the mistakes the NFT movement made that AI can learn from, though, the fact that the industry is still standing after it took such a reputational drubbing should be inspirational for those who see AI as a bubble on the brink of bursting. After falling back to Earth in 2022, the supposed end of NFTs in the mainstream might eventually just be seen as a blip.
I think everything’s working out the right way, Gharegozlou says. There were speculative excesses within the industry, but I think that also was a stress test for everything to come.
If the AI industry is to survive its own current phase of rapid experimentation and expansion, it would do well to heed the lessons of the last Next Big Thing.
A group of U.S. officials want to know why London’s FTSE Russell, a top financial services firm, chose to include the underperforming Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) in one of its most high-profile indexes.
Their concern stems, in part, from the fact that analysts generally do not view TMTG, which owns the presidents social media platform Truth, as particularly stable. Trading under the symbol DJT, shares are down 38% year to date and currently trade at about $17.50. Last fiscal year, the company reported a net loss of $400.9 million And in the most recent quarter, it reported a loss of $20 million.
The Russell 3000 tracks the performance of the 3,000-largest publicly traded companies in the United States. While investors can’t buy the index directly, several ETFs or index funds include the Russell 3000.
Signed by Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, fiscal leaders from New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland, as well as the comptroller of New York City, the letter expresses concern about TMTGs inclusion in the Russell 3000, which occurred last year. The drop in the company’s share price, negligible revenues and risks that come with the stock are among the issues they raise.
“The Russell 3000 is one of the most influential benchmarks in U.S. capital markets, with approximately $10.6 trillion in assets,” the officials write. “Its credibility depends on consistent, transparent, and rigorous standards that ensure its companies reflect the U.S. equity market and meet the expectations of institutional investors and public stewards alike. The continued presence of TMTG in the index raises troubling questions on both financial and governance grounds, as well as on the integrity of the benchmark itself.”
London’s FTSE Russell nor TMTG responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Pieciak’s signature on the letter is notable. Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott has urged leaders in his state to take a less confrontational posture with the White House. (Notably, Scott rejected two requests this summer to send the Vermont national guard to Washington, D.C., as part of Trump’s federal takeover of the nation’s capital.)
In their letter, the officials have asked FTSE Russell to explain TMTG’s inclusion in the Russell 3000. They’ve also asked for an assessment of how the group accounts for the company’s risks and detail on any safeguards in place to ensure that future index picks demonstrate sound market fundamentals.
Noting that “two of the last three Trump financial ventures have resulted in significant investor losses,” the letter expresses concerns that people investing in Russell 3000 tracking indexes might not realize they’re buying shares in TMTG.
An evolving list
The Russell 3000 is an evolving list of companies. On the last Friday of each June, the list is reconstituted to reflect changes in the U.S. equity market. Companies are evaluated to determine where they lie along the investment spectrum from value to growth stocks.
FTSE typically looks at the market capitalization of the stock as a bellwether for inclusion. TMTG currently has a market cap of $4.87 billion.
That ranks the stock 3099th among publicly traded companies, as of 10 a.m. ET Tuesday. In June of this year, when the list was last reconstituted, shares were about $3.50 higher than they are now, which likely put TMTG within the top 3,000, which could explain its inclusion.
In January, on the final day of trading before the presidential inauguration, TMTG boasted a market cap of $8.68 billion as investors flocked to the company before Trump’s second term began.
Deloitte Australia will partially refund the 440,000 Australian dollars ($290,000) paid by the Australian government for a report that was littered with apparent AI-generated errors, including a fabricated quote from a federal court judgment and references to nonexistent academic research papers.
The financial services firms report to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations was originally published on the department’s website in July. A revised version was published Friday after Chris Rudge, a Sydney University researcher of health and welfare law, said he alerted the media that the report was full of fabricated references.
Deloitte had reviewed the 237-page report and confirmed some footnotes and references were incorrect, the department said in a statement Tuesday.
Deloitte had agreed to repay the final instalment under its contract, the department said. The amount will be made public after the refund is reimbursed.
Asked to comment on the reports inaccuracies, Deloitte told The Associated Press in a statement the matter has been resolved directly with the client.
Deloitte did not respond when asked if the errors were generated by AI.
A tendency for generative AI systems to fabricate information is known as hallucination.
The report reviewed departmental IT systems use of automated penalties in Australia’s welfare system. The department said the substance of the report had been maintained and there were no changes to its recommendations.
The revised version included a disclosure that a generative AI language system, Azure OpenAI, was used in writing the report.
Quotes attributed to a federal court judge were removed, as well as references to nonexistent reports attributed to law and software engineering experts.
Rudge said he found up to 20 errors in the first version of the report.
The first error that jumped out at him wrongly stated that Lisa Burton Crawford, a Sydney University professor of public and constitutional law, had written a nonexistent book with a title suggesting it was outside her field of expertise.
I instantaneously knew it was either hallucinated by AI or the worlds best kept secret because Id never heard of the book and it sounded preposterous, Rudge said.
Work by his academic colleagues had been used as tokens of legitimacy, cited by the reports authors but not read, Rudge said, adding that he considered misquoting a judge was a more serious error in a report that was effectively an audit of the departments legal compliance.
Theyve totally misquoted a court case then made up a quotation from a judge and I thought, well hang on: thats actually a bit bigger than academics egos. Thats about misstating the law to the Australian government in a report that they rely on. So I thought it was important to stand up for diligence, Rudge said.
Senator Barbara Pocock, the Australian Greens partys spokesperson on the public sector, said Deloitte should refund the entire AU$440,000 ($290,000).
Deloitte misused AI and used it very inappropriately: misquoted a judge, used references that are non-existent,” Pocock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I mean, the kinds of things that a first-year university student would be in deep trouble for.
Rod McGuirk, Associated Press
Normalizing good urbanism requires culture change, and culture change requires an advocacy long game that makes space for ideas that seem impossible today.
Political scientist Joseph Overton developed a concept in the 1990s that had a major influence on my views on and approach to building support for good urbanism. The Overton window refers to the range of ideas that are acceptable or mainstream in public discourse at a given time. The acceptable topics are shaped by public opinion, media coverage, influence of special interest groups, and actions of political leaders.
As Joseph Lehman, a colleague of Overtons, put it: Public officials cannot enact any policy they please like theyre ordering dessert from a menu. They have to choose from among policies that are politically acceptable at the time.
{"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
Ideas that fall within the Overton window are more likely to be discussed and debated in the public sphere, while those that fall outside of it may be considered too extreme or fringe to be given serious consideration. The window shifts over time as public opinion changes, making new ideas acceptable and mainstreaming previously unacceptable ideas.
Before the Overton window shifted, these opinions were considered outside the range of allowable opinion:
The earth isnt flat, nor is it the center of the universe.
Multiple nationalities will be taught in the same classroom.
A computer will one day fit on your desk.
Tiny germs exist that you cant see with your eyes.
Human organs and limbs will be replaced.
Art will be created by voice command.
Radical departures
What Ive learned from the Overton window concept is that people need radical departures from normal scenario planning exercises. If you want to normalize walk-friendly, bike-friendly infrastructure, then you need to start by visualizing wildly different scenarios. When you eventually compromise, youve still made progress.
Heres a list of taboo urbanism ideas that might be worth shifting from fringe to mainstream:
Zoning abolition If incremental change is the aspirational goal, good luck with legalizing mixed-use neighborhoods. Its been said that zoning is an unnecessary evil, so lead with a proposal to abolish it altogether.
Yes In Gods Backyard (YIGBY) Churches could provide short-term housing for the homeless or low-income individuals, free from government oversight. The faith-based community doesnt agree on everything, but they all certainly want to help those in need.
3D-Printed Buildings Promote the use of emerging technology to create homes and retail centers far cheaper than traditional construction. Grant people greater control over their property.
Universal Basic Mobility Its like a universal basic income, but for transportation. Several cities have piloted bus and bike subsidies. A radical proposition would be privatized UBM.
Off-Grid Living Decriminalize frontier life. Have you ever heard stories of people trying to disassociate from traditional utility services? Or building something without a permit?
Local Farming I know youve seen community gardens, but you havent seen people selling their own food, because its not allowed. And if you introduce fresh milk, the ATF will raid the operation.
Homesteading Programs that allow individuals to reclaim vacant or blighted properties. This could be a way to turn ordinary homeowners into developers.
Asking big What if questions doesnt have to be confrontational, but it will always make some people uncomfortable. Its worth it. Thats how civilizations advance.
{"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}}
Being advised to max out your 401(k) is Personal Finance 101. But is that universally solid guidance?
Tax-sheltered retirement plans offer the convenience of automatic investments and tax breakspretax contributions and tax-deferred compounding for traditional 401(k)s and tax-free compounding and withdrawals for Roth contributions.
But the availability and quality of the 401(k) are also important considerations.
Some workers dont have access to an employer-provided retirement plan, and 401(k) quality can be uneven. High administrative costs, meager employer matching contributions, and costly investment lineups can detract from 401(k)s tax-saving features.
Meanwhile, the tax efficiency for investors nonretirement accounts has improved over the years.
Broad market equity exchange-traded funds have dramatically reduced the tax drag for taxable accountholders, effectively simulating the tax deferral that comes with investing in a 401(k). And many robo-advisors use other techniques to reduce the tax drag on investors taxable accountsspecifically, selling losing positions to offset gainers elsewhere in investors portfolios. That can reduce the capital gains taxes on positions when theyre eventually liquidated.
Even as investing in a taxable account has grown more attractive, its a given that investors should put enough in a 401(k)even a poor oneto earn matching contributions. If the 401(k) plan is weak and they have additional retirement assets to invest, they should opt for an IRA in lieu of steering more money to the poor 401(k) plan. Income limits apply to IRA contributions, but anyone can invest in a Roth IRA through the backdoor, provided they have earned income to cover the contribution amount.
Multiple factors determine whether a taxable account can beat a 401(k)
But what if they have additional retirement assets to invest? Once the IRA is fully funded, would those dollars be better off in a weak 401(k) or in a brokerage account held outside a tax-sheltered account?
The answer here, as with so many financial questions, depends on a couple of key factors, especially the following:
401(k) plan quality: How bad is the plan? Does it have high administrative costs and subpar and/or expensive investment options? Or is it simply that the lineup includes some lackluster funds that are past their prime? Comparing your plan to others can help you make that assessment.
The quality and tax efficiency of the investments in the taxable accounts: Investing in a taxable account will rarely be the better option unless you can invest in securities that make few ongoing distributions of income, capital gains, or both. The good news is that investors can opt for a brokerage platform that offers a good array of low-cost, tax-efficient optionsnamely, index-tracking ETFs and municipal-bond funds.
The investors tax bracket at the time of the contributions: Being able to make pretax contributionsas is the case with traditional 401(k)swill be more valuable to the investor whos in a high tax bracket at the time of that contribution than it will be to the person whos in a lower tax bracket.
The tax bracket at the time of withdrawals: Withdrawals from taxable accounts receive more favorable (and flexible) tax treatment than withdrawals from traditional 401(k)s. Investors pulling from their taxable accounts will owe capital gains taxes, whereas money coming out of a traditional 401(k) is taxed at the investors ordinary income tax rate, which is higher. Moreover, because the 401(k) money has never been taxed, investors owe taxes on the entire withdrawal, not just the appreciation; taxable-account investors, by contrast, will only owe tax on their gains. Finally, 401(k) assets are subject to required minimum distributions at age 73. For investors who expect to be in a high tax bracket upon retirement, having assets in a taxable accountand enjoying more favorable taxation on the distributionswill be particularly beneficial. (Of course, Roth 401(k) withdrawals are more favorable still: Roth 401(k) assets can be rolled over to a Roth IRA to avoid RMDs. Better still, qualified withdrawals from Roth 401(k)s and IRAs are tax-free.)
Taxable account vs. 401(k) takeaways
Investors would do well to weigh their own personal tax situationsboth current and futureas well as the quality of their 401(k)s when determining which account types to fund. Investors can also benefit from tax diversificationsplitting assets across accounts with varying tax treatment, whether tax-deferred, taxable, or Rothwhen saving for retirement.
This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar.
Christine Benz, Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning
Laura Youngson didn’t expect to focus so much on soccer cleats when she organized a group of women to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and play a high-altitude match.The point of the 2017 game was to highlight inequality in sports for women and girls. On that front, Youngson achieved her goal with the match becoming the subject of a documentary and landing the group in the Guinness Book of World Records.Still, something bothered Youngson as the match unfolded. Glancing at the athletes’ feet, she was struck that all the women were wearing men’s or boy’s soccer cleats instead of gear that was designed specifically for them. The realization led her to launch IDA Sports, which makes soccer cleats for the unique athletic needs of women.“There was this real commercial gap for performance footwear for women,” said Youngson, whose IDA cleats are worn by players including Washington Spirit midfielder Courtney Brown. “As the game is growing, we’re in this moment when everything’s professionalizing, but the footwear wasn’t really keeping pace, so I wanted to go and change that.”IDA is among a growing number of companies founded in recent years to prioritize women in sports.These aren’t just lifestyle or athleisure brands. Moolah Kicks, for instance, makes women’s basketball shoes designed specifically for women’s feet and counts Courtney Williams of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx as one of its partners. Lindsay Housman founded Hettas, a performance running shoe company. Saysh, Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix’s running shoe company, allows buyers to make free exchanges when their size changes during pregnancy.Beyond shoes, Liv Cycling makes performance bicycles for women and there’s even Indiana Fever partner Sequel tampons, which have spiraled grooves that help prevent leaks during strenuous activities.The companies are entering the market at a time when interest in women’s sports is intensifying.The WNBA has shattered attendance records recently, lifted by the star power of players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. National Women’s Soccer League teams are worth 29% more this year than they were a year ago, with both Angel City and the Kansas City Current now valued at over $250 million. Several new pro sports leagues have formed in recent years, including the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the 3-on-3 Unrivaled basketball league. The Women’s Professional Baseball League is set to launch next year.Overall, women’s sports generated global revenue of $1.88 billion in 2024 and is projected to rake in $2.35 billion this year, according to consulting firm Deloitte. Commercial revenue, including sponsorships and merchandising sales, surpassed $1 billion globally for the first time last year.
No more ‘shrink it and pink it’
All that growth means more opportunities for women-owned brands and a chance to reject the “shrink it and pink it” mentality in which companies were criticized for taking men’s products and selling them to women by making them pretty rather than functional.“Marketing is all about understanding the needs of consumers,” said Dae Hee Kwak of the Center for Sport Marketing Research at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. “So thinking of the needs of the women’s sports fan and athlete, who understands them better than women, right?”Leela Srinivasan, CEO of the sports marketing and sponsorship platform Parity, said men’s products simply weren’t built for women’s bodies.“Women in motor sports will tell you that even the way the seat belts are designed, they don’t fit right, they don’t fall in the right places,” Srinivasan said. “You talk to Lynn Saint James, the motor sports legend, about how she couldn’t reach the pedals. Nothing has been designed with women’s bodies in mind.”Bonnie Tu, who founded Liv Cycling, experienced that problem with bicycles.“Whenever I’d go for vacation, I would take a bike from the hotel,” Tu said. “Most of the time, I would get myself hurt because the bike doesn’t suit me well. Because most of the bikes are meant for men, no matter if it’s a mountain bike or it’s road bike, it was all for men.”Youngson similarly looked at biomechanical needs when designing cleats for IDA, resulting in a product that features a wider toe box, narrower heel and shorter studs than men’s boots.For those who have spent decades in and around women’s sports, these shifts represent a profound change. Natalie White, who founded Moolah Kicks after playing basketball in college and working on the business side of several WNBA teams, recalled always playing the sport in boy’s and men’s shoes.“It wasn’t until I was a senior in college and I saw an advertisement that had more top WNBA players holding out men’s shoes that it really hit me, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy.’ When you begin your career, through pro, you’re not only going to be playing in equipment that isn’t fit for you, but you’re going to be promoting it?” White said. “Oh my gosh, crazy.”The bigger shoemakers, including Adidas and Nike, have developed women’s soccer and basketball shoes in recognition of the growing market and the needs of the female athlete. Sabrina Ionescu has a signature shoe with Nike and, this past summer, Adidas released its first player edition of Adidas’ F50 Sparkfusion cleat with NWSL star Trinity Rodman.
Women want products without pandering
Kwak said that in addition to products made specifically for them, women also value authenticity as consumers. And that means working with women’s leagues, athletes and sometimes causes involving equity and social justice.IDA, for example, has partnered with the players’ unions for both the NWSL and the Gainbridge Super League, a top-tier domestic professional women’s soccer league that launched last year.Coalition Snow, a women-led ski and snowboard company based in Reno, Nevada, not only makes sure of safe and fair working conditions throughout its supply chain, it also uses recycled material for packaging and partners with a nonprofit to plant trees in rural Kenya for every board or pair of skis sold.Liv Cycling sponsors women’s racing teams and competitions, like the Tour de France Femmes, in addition to community clubs. Athlete involvement in the creation of products helps, too. It’s really what personalizes these companies compared to the sporting goods giants.But it’s all about taking that first leap, Youngson said.“As the game grows and professionalizes, it should be attractive to brands,” Youngson said. “So then you’re going, ‘Why aren’t you doing it?’ Because the money’s there, the game’s there. Why can’t we have all of this choice around us in the same way that the men’s game has?”
AP Sports Writer Alyce Brown contributed to this report.
Anne M. Peterson, AP Sports Writer
Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano was named to the newly created position of CEO of the IRS on Monday, making him the latest member of the Trump administration to be put in charge of multiple federal agencies.As IRS CEO, Bisignano will report to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who currently serves as acting commissioner of the IRS, the Treasury Department says. It is unclear whether Bisignano’s newly created role at the IRS will require Senate confirmation.The Treasury Department said in a statement that Bisignano will be responsible for overseeing all day-to-day IRS operations while also continuing to serve in his role as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.Bessent said in a statement that the IRS and SSA “share many of the same technological and customer service goals. This makes Mr. Bisignano a natural choice for this role.”The move to install Bisignano at the IRS adds another layer to the leadership shuffling that has occurred at the agency since the beginning of Trump’s term. Bessent was named acting commissioner in August after Trump removed former U.S. Rep Billy Long from the role less than two months after his confirmation, and nominated him as ambassador to Iceland.The four acting commissioners who preceded Long in the job included one who resigned over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another whose appointment led to a fight between former Trump adviser Elon Musk and Bessent.Mike Kaercher, deputy director of the Tax Law Center at the New York University School of Law, points to a possible conflict of interest in Bisignano holding leadership roles at SSA and the IRS. “Putting the same person in charge of both the IRS and SSA creates a conflict of interest when SSA wants access to legally protected taxpayer data,” Kaercher said.With two day jobs, Bisignano joins a number of other Trump administration officials to wear multiple hats, including Bessent, Marco Rubio, Sean Duffy, Jamieson Greer and Russell Vought.IRS and Social Security advocates expressed concern about the new appointment.Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, pointed to Bisignano being named to a position that appears to avoid congressional approval.“If the Trump Admin asked for the Senate’s advice & consent, would they really want the same person running the government’s biggest program AND overseeing the implementation of the extraordinarily complex new tax law?” she said on the Bluesky social media app.And Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for SSA recipients and future retirees, said Bisignano’s “divided attention will create a bottleneck that makes the inevitable problems that arise even harder to correct. Never in Social Security’s 90-year history has a commissioner held a second job. Bisiginano’s new role will leave a leadership vacuum at the top of the agency, especially since the Republican Senate hasn’t even confirmed a deputy commissioner.”Bisignano has served as CEO of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm, since 2020. He is a onetime defender of corporate policies to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination.
Fatima Hussein, Associated Press
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that the government shutdown is putting more stress on air traffic controllers who already have an extremely stressful job, as well as threatening a program that small communities rely on to help subsidize airline service.Controllers are expected to continue working without a paycheck, Duffy said, so they are now worried about how to pay their bills in addition to worrying about keeping flights safe. And there have started to be instances of controllers calling out sick, leading to delays at several airports Monday.“Now what they think about as they’re controlling our airspace is, how am I going to pay my mortgage? How do I make my car payment? I have a couple kids at home. How do I put food on the table? I’m working six days a week. Do I have to take a second job and drive Uber when I’m already exhausted from doing a job that’s already stressful to think about how I can make extra money because the government may not provide me a paycheck?” Duffy said.Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport, where Duffy held his news conference, said controllers should be paid for their work.“Everyone should get paid for what they are doing. Of course it bothers me,” said Daniel Johansson from North Carolina.A traveler from Utah, Nancy Taylor, agreed.“Yeah, that would be hard to work for no pay,” Taylor said. “But I think they understand the importance of their job. And the safety that provides to us as travelers. They need to get paid.”The Transportation Department has been able to keep the air traffic controller academy in Oklahoma City open for now with funding from previous years, but Duffy is still concerned about the potential impact on efforts to hire and train new controllers in the hope of eliminating a longstanding shortage. Duffy said the support staff who train controllers after they come out of the academy could be laid off.The head of the air traffic controllers union, Nick Daniels, stayed away from political comments, but he urged Congress to end the shutdown.
“We need to bring this shutdown to a close, so that the Federal Aviation Administration and the committed aviation safety professionals can put this distraction behind us, and completely focus on their vital work,” Daniels said.Duffy said there has already been a small uptick in controllers calling out sick in a few places. Anytime that gets worse and creates a shortage of controllers, the FAA reduces the number of takeoffs and landings to ensure controllers aren’t overwhelmed and the system remains safe. But that creates delays and possibly cancellations. Near the end of the 35-day shutdown during the first Trump administration, there were widespread flight delays because of shortages of controllers.By Monday evening, the FAA was reporting that staffing shortages were creating delays in the Burbank, Newark and Denver airports. The worst problems were in Burbank, where California Gov. Gavin Newsom said no controllers were on duty during the evening, leading to average delays of two-and-a-half hours at that airport.The Essential Air Service program that subsidizes airline service to small communities across the country will also quickly run out of money. Duffy said that program enjoys strong bipartisan support and provides an important lifeline to many small communities. It is especially important in Alaska, where flying is the only way to travel between many communities.“That money runs out this Sunday. So there’s many small communities across the country that will now no longer have the resources to make sure they have air service in their community,” Duffy said.
Associated Press videographer Joseph B. Frederick contributed to this report from Newark, New Jersey.
Josh Funk, AP Transportation Writer
