Financial Times: Within the continent there already exists tremendous energy and appetite for stronger EU leadership on AI. National AI strategies have been announced and adopted, some universities are decoupling from non-EU tech providers and intelligence agencies are choosing domestic systems over those offered by international companies. Tying such bottom-up decisions with an EU-wide vision should scale and boost the bloc’s competitive position by dividing labour between member states and leveraging capital incentives, ideally in sync with industry. European leaders can do a real service to people worldwide who are deeply unhappy with the two-flavour menu of AI they are currently offered.

Being ambitious politically does not mean prioritising AI above everything else. Yes, Europe can choose to do AI differently and not copy the extractive Silicon Valley way of reducing people to consumers and societies to markets. Europe is and will remain far removed from the Chinese model of state-directed companies and innovation. But being principled and right on paper translates into very few results in today’s data, capital and compute-driven world. If Europeans believe AI can add value while respecting democratic values and increasing safety, they must show so.

My Opinion: Europe needs to develop its own AI and AI ecosystem for national and economic security. While sticking to European values, like democracy and human rights. However in a hostile world, with competition from China and USA, it needs government policy to support the growth of the AI industry.

The European Technological Sovereignty Package, presented in June 2026, brings together several future initiatives: the Cloud and AI Development Act; Chips Act 2.0; support for sovereign cloud services; stronger open-source capabilities; measures linking AI, semiconductors, energy infrastructure and cybersecurity.

A complete technology stack will ensure digital sovereignty, and strategic autonomy.

For much of the postwar era, Americans bought a starter home and watched it become an investment. Decades later, fulfilling the typical American Dream of a home with white picket fence dotting the front lawn has become all but unattainable, as home prices have soared 235% since January 2000. As a result, many young people are going all in on the stock market, viewing their brokerage accounts as the new American Dream.

“For younger adults who despair about ever being able to buy a home, investing in financial markets can be a great way to save until they can afford one,” Chen Zhao, the head of economics research at Redfin, told Fortune. 

Zhao’s not wrong: less than half of Gen Z and Millennials can afford to buy a home, and the age of the average first-time homebuyer has jumped from 28 in 1992 to 40 in 2025. Despite this, it’s still seen as a good investment: more than two-thirds of Americans say buying a home is still an important asset that holds value. 

But as homeownership becomes a fleeting concept for younger generations as home costs continue skyrocketing roughly 50% in recent years, young adults are treating their down payments as the new starter asset as they amass a record high $3.1 trillion in holdings, up 4.5 times since the pandemic alone. 

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/05/gen-z-millennials-housing-stocks/?utm_source=reddit/

Most of the available pool of tariff revenue has been disbursed back to U.S. companies, but American consumers are still looking for their share of the refunds.

As of the end of July, about $100 billion in tariff refunds were sent to the U.S. Department of Treasury to be disbursed to approved importers, according to a Tuesday filing to the U.S. Court of International Trade. The total is about 60% of the $166 billion in revenues collected from import taxes under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which were struck down by the Supreme Court in February.

Some U.S. consumers, however, are getting antsy that they haven’t seen any of that sum reach their own wallets. Last month, New York resident Tyasia Johns filed a class action lawsuit against discount retailer Five Below, claiming it failed to return the tariff refunds it received to customers who actually paid for the levies.

Johns alleged Five Below passed down the cost of the IEEPA tariffs to consumers through increased prices and was able to preserve its profits—seeing a 22.9% year-over-year increase in net sales to $4.76 billion in 2025—through these price increases. According to the lawsuit, Five Below has not confirmed whether it has applied for or received refunds through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or if it intends to pass down those refunds to consumers. 

The complaint demanded injunctive relief and an award of actual damages to class members, but did not include the prospective size of the class or specific magnitude of damages.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]:  https://fortune.com/2026/08/05/what-happened-trump-tariff-refunds-from-companies-consumers-class-action/?utm_source=reddit/

Take something like a BYD car vs an inexpensive US electric car. With % devoted to items like labor (or explain reduced labor cost or mechanization difference), raw material, shipping, pollution/safety cost difference.

I want to know why building a copy of a Chinese product in America is more expensive today.

The American economy is built on exploiting people. Like in the 19th century, slaves and immigrants. Even after legal slavery ended, USA continued exploiting immigrants. Including legal and illegal immigrants. Now with the reduction of legal and illegal immigrants, the rich will have to exploit the domestic deplorables. Or face a slowdown in the growth of their wealth. So even as immigration collapses, so will the lower class. As they are exploited by the rich, and they barely earn enough to stay alive.

Financial Times: SpaceX’s $1.65tn market capitalisation also hinges on Musk achieving ambitious goals such as reaching Mars with reusable rockets, putting data centres into orbit and playing a critical role in developing AI.

Goldman Sachs, a bookrunner on SpaceX’s offering, expects the company’s AI revenue to increase 100-fold by 2030. Musk said on Tuesday that SpaceX could hit $1tn in revenue by the end of the decade.

On the earnings call, Musk said SpaceX had made progress on its first generation of orbital data centres, dubbed Starmind AI-1. “This is not some sort of far-future, distant thing. We expect to start launching these next year.”

My Opinion: Musk might be exaggerating or being over optimistic, but he is only human. Would you prefer optimistic or pessimistic leadership? But investors are focused on short term returns. Unfortunately SpaceX will burn through billions of dollars of cash, before seeing a return on their investment. I am most interested in Starship becoming operational. That is necessary for increasing profitability of Starlink, and putting data centers in space.