I flew 40 hours from NYC to Singapore and back to see which cabin on Singapore Airlines was best. The first-class suite alone is one of the most expensive plane tickets in the world and can cost $23,000 round-trip. I even met YouTuber MrBeast on that flight. After reviewing the food, service, and seats, I had one favorite that might surprise you. Insider paid a media rate for these flights.
37.9 million Americans are currently living in poverty, accounting for 11.6% of the total population. That’s despite the fact that America ranks first as the richest nation in the world in terms of GDP. Poverty in the U.S. is not only a humanitarian crisis but an economic one as well. About 11% of the federal budget, or $665 billion goes to economic security programs every year. Child poverty alone is estimated to cost the U.S. over $1 trillion based on the latest research. So how did poverty become such a big issue in the U.S. and why is it so difficult to end it?
Thirty years ago, Taiwan immigrant Jensen Huang founded Nvidia with the dream of revolutionizing PCs and gaming with 3D graphics. In 1999, after laying off the majority of workers and nearly going bankrupt, the company succeeded when it launched what it claims as the world’s first Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Then Jensen bet the company on something entirely different: AI. Now, that bet is paying off in a big way as Nvidia’s A100 chips quickly become the coveted training engines for ChatGPT and other generative AI. But as the chip shortage eases, other chip giants like Intel are struggling. And with all it’s chips made by TSMC in Taiwan, Nvidia remains vulnerable to mounting U.S.-China trade tensions. We went to Nvidia’s Silicon Valley, California, headquarters to talk with Huang and get a behind-the scenes-look at the chips powering gaming and the AI boom.
China remains home to 1.4 billion people. But that number is getting smaller.
The country's National Bureau of Statistics reported China's population slipped to 1.412 billion last year from 1.413 billion in 2021. The last time China saw negative population growth was in the 1960s.
Many experts believe that China's one-child policy, introduced in the 1980s, is one of the main reasons for the population decline.
"China's one-child policy was a mistake," said Yi Fuxian, an expert on Chinese population trends at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "China is worried because its economic outlook is bleak."
China revised its one-child policy to two in 2016 and three in 2021. But despite the change, younger adults don't seem to be in much of a mood to follow the policy and have more babies. The country has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, falling to an all-time low of 1.28 in 2020.
"This one-child policy has the Chinese people accustomed to one child per family," said Xiaolin Shi, an assistant teaching professor at Northeastern University. "So you can imagine how hard it is to change people's cultural attitude that has been such deeply rooted in their mind."
Some experts believe that slowing population growth is not only a concern for China but also a global concern, as the country has long been known as the world's factory.
"The global consumer is going to feel what's happening," said Mei Fong, author of 'One Child.' "What's happening in the bedrooms in China is actually affecting what's happening in the rest of the world."
Watch the video above to find out what caused China's population decline and how the shrinking population could alter the global economy.
The United States relies on taxes and debt for much of its spending — but what would spending cuts look like? Just last year, the U.S. took on over a trillion dollars in debt.
WSJ explains how much the Treasury relies on debt, where it goes and what happens when the Treasury hits the debt ceiling.
This documentary series goes inside the fast food giant KFC UK from their boardrooms to their kitchens. In the final episode, the future of the KFC UK brand is put under the microscope. Marketing expert Meghan hopes to change the public's perception by launching new healthier products like BBQ'd Pulled Chicken. First Meghan has to get the concept past franchisees like Acky, who own 65% of UK and Ireland stores. Following a photo shoot, Pulled Chicken hits the shelf in Glasgow to a lukewarm start. Manager Mark's team hit the streets with free samples and within days Pulled Chicken is flying off the shelves, just in time for Meghan to witness.
At its peak, Forever 21 made $4.4 billion in revenue and was one of the fastest-growing fast fashion empires. Now, the retailer is preparing to file for bankruptcy after alienating its core customers and struggling to keep up with the rise of e-commerce. As one of the largest tenants of American malls, a large-scale shutdown of Forever 21's stores could exacerbate the ongoing retail apocalypse.