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The U.S. economy grew at a surprisingly strong 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter, the most rapid expansion in two years, as government and consumer spending, as well as exports, all increased.U.S. gross domestic product from July through September the economy’s total output of goods and services rose from its 3.8% growth rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday in a report delayed by the government shutdown. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast growth of 3% in the period.However, inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve would like. The Fed’s favored inflation gauge called the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE climbed to a 2.8% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.1% in the second quarter.Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation was 2.9%, up from 2.6% in the April-June quarter.Economists say that persistent and potentially worsening inflation could make a January interest rate cut from the Fed less likely, even as central bank official remain concerned about a slowing labor market.“If the economy keeps producing at this level, then there isn’t as much need to worry about a slowing economy,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, adding that inflation could return as the greatest concern about the economy.In a slow holiday trading week, U.S. markets on Wall Street turned lower following the GDP report, likely due to growing doubts that another Fed rate cut is coming next month.Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, rose to a 3.5% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.5% in the April-June period.Consumption and investment by the government grew by 2.2% in the quarter after contracting 0.1% in the second quarter. The third quarter figure was boosted by increased expenditures at the state and local levels and federal government defense spending.Private business investment fell 0.3%, led by declines in investment in housing and in nonresidential buildings such as offices and warehouses. However, that decline was much less than the 13.8% slide in the second quarter.Within the GDP data, a category that measures the economy’s underlying strength grew at a 3% annual rate from July through September, up slightly from 2.9% in the second quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment, but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.Exports grew at an 8.8% rate, while imports, which subtract from GDP, fell another 4.7%.Tuesday’s report is the first of three estimates the government will make of GDP growth for the third quarter of the year.Outside of the first quarter, when the economy shrank for the first time in three years as companies rushed to import goods ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariff rollout, the U.S. economy has continued to expand at a healthy rate. That’s despite much higher borrowing rates the Fed imposed in 2022 and 2023 in its drive to curb the inflation that surged as the United States bounced back with unexpected strength from the brief but devastating COVID-19 recession of 2020.Though inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target, the central bank cut its benchmark lending rate three times in a row to close out 2025, mostly out of concern for a job market that has steadily lost momentum since spring.Last week, the government reported that the U.S. economy gained a healthy 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October. Notably, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, the highest since 2021.The country’s labor market has been stuck in a “low hire, low fire” state, economists say, as businesses stand pat due to uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of elevated interest rates. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the year ended in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that he suspects those numbers will be revised even lower. Matt Ott, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Santa keeps delivering for quantum computing investors this year. On Monday, shares of well-known quantum computing firms shot up by double digits, with D-Wave Quantum stock up almost 15% and Quantum Computing Inc. up 11%. Shares of IonQ Inc. and Rigetti Computing were likewise up roughly 10%. The exact catalyst spurring those increases is unclear. It may have initially been sparked in part by D-Waves Monday announcement that it would be attending the CES 2026 trade show next month. The Palo Alto-based company plans to showcase its award-winning annealing quantum computing technology, hybrid quantum-classical solvers, and real-world customer use cases that are demonstrating measurable performance benefits, often beyond classical computing alone. Quantum computing stocks have seen strong growth in 2025 Aside from that announcement, there may simply be ongoing excitement about the quantum space in general. Publicly traded quantum computing firms have captivated investors over the past year or more, despite the speculative nature of the underlying technology that some say will transform the computer industry. A June report published by McKinsey & Company dug into the appeal, saying that surging investment and faster-than-expected innovation could propel the quantum market to $100 billion in a decade. It added that as quantum computing startups have received more funding from both public and private sources, the technology itself has started seeing more commercial deployment, and companies are also making progress in patenting the technology theyre developing. Year-to-date growth for these stocks has been mostly impressive and in some cases eye-popping. As of Tuesday morning, D-Wave shares are up 235% since January 1. IonQ shares are up 25%, and Rigetti shares are up 34%. The outlier is Quantum Computing Inc., which has seen its stock price fall 35% year-to-date. Will the end-of-year quantum rally last? It’s unclear how long the holiday rally is going to last, but some profit-taking already seems to be underway. As of early trading on Tuesday morning, D-Wave shares had fallen roughly 3%, while Rigetti was down around 1.58%. Shares in Quantum Computing Inc. IonQ were roughly flat.
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E-Commerce
Across the country, a growing sentiment suggests the university degree is an artifact of a bygone era, a depreciating asset in an economy obsessed with speed. A recent Gallup poll confirms this shift, revealing that Americans confidence in the value of a college education has plummeted to a 15-year low. Nowhere is this skepticism louder than in my own backyard. In Silicon Valley, the “skip college” mantra has evolved from a “hot take” to accepted wisdom. Fueled by the rise of generative AI, the logic is seductive: If artificial intelligence can code, write copy, and analyze data faster than a junior employee, why spend four years and a small fortune on skills a bot will master before you graduate? It is a compelling argument. It is also fundamentally wrong. As the CEO of an AI company, I witness the trajectory of automation daily. I see exactly what our models can do, and I recognize the massive disruption coming for knowledge work. Yet, my conclusion is the exact opposite of the current narrative. As AI automates technical execution, the core purpose of the university sharpens. Far from making college obsolete, the AI revolution is making the benefits of higher education like wisdom, maturity, and the forging of mental models, the most critical economic differentiator a human can possess. THE COMMODITY OF “HOW,” THE VALUE OF “WHY” For the last two decades, higher education has been sold largely as vocational training. You go to school to learn a hard skill like computer science, accounting, or law, that you then trade for a salary. Under this transactional model, the skeptics are right. If college is just a place to download technical syntax into your brain, it is inefficient. AI is rapidly demonetizing the ability to simply do things. However, the universitys true value was never entirely the how but it was always the why. In an AI-native world, the technical barrier to entry is collapsing. Soon, natural language will be the only programming language required. When anyone can build an app, draft a legal brief, or design a product with a few prompts, execution becomes a commodity. The premium shifts to the ability to discern what to build, why it matters, and how it impacts the human ecosystem. This requires a type of thinking that is rarely self-taught. It requires the kind of broad, interdisciplinary exposure that a university curriculum provides. We don’t need more people who can optimize a sorting algorithm; we need people who can debate the ethics of that algorithm, understand the sociological impact of its deployment, and navigate the geopolitical landscape it operates within. COLLEGE AS SCAFFOLDING FOR THE MIND Beyond the curriculum, the “skip college” contingent ignores the universitys profound developmental role. They view the four-year degree as a delay of adulthood. I view it as the necessary scaffolding for it. The years between 18 and 22 are a neurological and psychological crucible. The brain is finalizing its development; identities are solidifying. The university environment provides a unique sandbox where young adults can collide with diverse philosophies, navigate complex social hierarchies, and fail in a relatively low-stakes environment. When I hire for leadership roles, I rarely seek the fastest coder in the room. I seek resilience. I seek the ability to collaborate with dissenting voices and the maturity to navigate ambiguity. These are traits honed in lecture halls, seminar debates, and student organizations just as much as they are in internships. THE SHELF-LIFE OF SKILLS VERSUS MINDSET Critics often weigh the cost of tuition against the starting salary of a graduate’s first job. But in a world of accelerating technological velocity, the specific skills learned at 20 are often obsolete by 25. To skip college for a specific trade or tech stack is to bet one’s career on a snapshot in time. A university education, particularly one grounded in the liberal arts and fundamental sciences, plays a longer game. It teaches you how to learn. It builds a mental operating system capable of updating itself. Consider the “hallucination” problem in large language models. To effectively use these tools, a human must possess critical thinking skills robust enough to audit the machine. They need a foundational knowledge of history, logic, and science to discern when the AI is fabricating reality. The worker who skips college risks becoming a passive consumer of AI output while the college graduate becomes its orchestrator. That is a difference in career trajectory that may not appear in year-one earnings, but compounds exponentially over a lifetime. A CALL FOR A HUMAN RENAISSANCE Silicon Valley loves efficiency. We love to optimize. And yes, the modern university is often inefficient, expensive, and bureaucratic. It is ripe for disruption and reform. But lets not confuse the need for reform with the need for abolition. The “skip college” narrative is an oversimplification. It assumes that because machines are becoming more intelligent, humans can afford to be less educated. The opposite is true. As we hand over more cognitive labor to AI, we free humans to operate at the peak of their intelligence. We are entering an era where philosophy, ethics, creative synthesis, and interpersonal leadership will be the most high-value skills in the global economy. We should not encourage the next generation to skip the one institution dedicated to developing those traits. We should encourage them to go, but with a new purpose. Do not go to college just to get a job. Go to college to build the kind of complex, adaptable, and nuanced mind that no AI can replicate. The future isn’t about competing with machines. It is about becoming more human. That is an education worth the investment. Bhavin Shah is CEO and cofounder of Moveworks.
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E-Commerce
We used to argue whether design was about aesthetics or about functionality. But in 2025, those conversations seemed downright quaint. Simpler debates for a simpler time. Now were wondering if craft can survive the age of AI, and if well ever escape the politicization of every brand and object again. For the December episode of our podcast By Design, I discussed these trends and more with Fast Company senior editor Liz Stinson. We were joined by some of our brightest friends in the industry who shared their biggest own moments in design for the year, including Paola Antonelli (senior curator at MoMA), Cliff Kuang (FC Designs first editor and senior staff designer at Google), Forest Young (Global Design & AI Resident at Wolff Olins), and Elizabeth Goodspeed (editor-at-large at Its Nice That). Just try to guess who called out vibe coding, and who highlighted Sabrina Carpenters latest tour. Tune in through Apple or Spotify, and please give us a few stars if you like it. See you in 2026!
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss pill on Monday, giving the Danish drugmaker a leg up in the race to market a potent oral medication for shedding pounds as it looks to regain lost ground from rival Eli Lilly. The pill is 25 milligrams of semaglutide, the same active ingredient in injectable Wegovy and Ozempic, and will be sold under the brand name Wegovy. Novo already sells an oral semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus. The approval could help spur a turnaround for Novo after a rocky year of sliding shares, profit warnings and slowing sales of its injectable Wegovy amid intense competition from Lilly and pressure from compounded versions. U.S.-listed shares of Novo jumped 8% and Lilly fell 1% in extended trading after the approval announcement. A 64-week, late-stage study showed participants who took 25 mg of oral semaglutide once daily lost an average of 16.6% of their body weight, compared with 2.7% for those on a placebo. The pill was approved for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight and at least one related health condition, broadening the potential patient pool at a time when insurers, employers and governments are wrestling with spiraling healthcare costs related to obesity. It could help open the door to tens of millions of untapped patients in a global market, forecast to be worth some $150 billion a year by next decade. “You’re going to see a huge uptake in the patient base as new indications open up and as oral versions hit the market,” said Anand Iyer, chief AI officer at telehealth firm Welldoc. Novo is banking on the pill’s first-to-market advantage to revitalize sales in the U.S., where it has lost ground to Lilly. Lilly’s next-generation weight-loss pill orforglipron could be approved as soon as late March. David Moore, Novo’s executive vice president of U.S. operations, said a daily pill could boost interest and uptake of the drug. Novo is manufacturing the pill in the United States in North Carolina and has been building up supplies of the pill “for some time” to ensure that it has “ample supply”, he said. Some 40% of American adults are obese, U.S. government data shows, and around 12% say they currently take GLP-1 drugs, according to a poll published last month by health policy research organization KFF. Novo had a first-to-market advantage with injectables, but initially struggled to meet explosive demand. Eventually, Lilly got ahead with its rival Zepbound, which now leads for weekly U.S. prescriptions. Novo and analysts say a weight-loss pill would address injection hesitancy and expand access. Analysts say pills could capture around a one-fifth share of the market by 2030, particularly among patients who prefer simpler and less invasive treatment options. “The pills will not displace or replace the injections,” said Christopher Chrisman, a managing director and partner at consultancy BCG, adding some patients may prefer to continue with weekly injections. “But pills offer clear advantages to some people. There’s travel convenience and no need for a fridge,” he added. PRICING AGREEMENTS Novo said the 1.5-milligram starting dose of the Wegovy pill will be available in early January. Novo and Lilly had agreed to offer starter doses of their weightloss pills at $149 per month for the U.S. government Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs and to cash-paying customers via the White House’s direct-to-consumer TrumpRx site. Novo recently cut the cash price for Wegovy to $349 a month, from $499. U.S. list prices are about $1,000 per month or more. Novo CEO Mike Doustdar said in November that people using weight-loss drugs show more “consumer-like” behavior than its traditional diabetes patients, acknowledging that the company needs to adapt to this and bring in new expertise. Whether another semaglutide product can solve Novo’s current ills remains to be seen. Novo’s oral semaglutide needs to be taken in the morning on an empty stomach, 30 minutes before eating, drinking or using any other oral medication. Lilly’s pill does not have those restrictions. (Reporting by Maggie Fick, Patrick Wingrove, Mariam Sunny, Christy Santhosh and Mrinalika Roy; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Bill Berkrot, Rosalba O’Brien and Jamie Freed) Maggie Fick and Mariam Sunny, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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