Economy and Things

Self driving cars is the biggest technology for the future... self driving cars will avoid problems humans make... in 20 years, no human drivers will be allowed.

Annual sales at Starbucks are set to break through the $20bn mark this year – enough to buy a tall latte for everyone on the planet. The world’s biggest coffee chain, headquartered in Seattle, is booming after improvements to food menus and service along with the launch of new drinks such as the Toasted Graham Latte. Comparable sales – at cafes that have been open for at least a year – rose 8% in the firm’s fourth quarter, beating analysts’ expectations.

According to Ron Shaich, founder and CEO of Panera Bread, a tech revolution is coming, and it will be bad news for many workers. "Labor is going to go down," Shaich said Wednesday in a quarterly earnings call. "And as digital utilization goes up — like the sun comes up in the morning — it is going to continue to go up. Digital utilization. You are seeing it happen in Panera today.

After adjusting for inflation, US median household income, at $53,657 in 2014, is still 6.5% lower than pre-recession levels in 2007, and 7.2% lower than its peak in 1999, according to the US Census Bureau.

Apple is becoming a tech company with Chinese characteristics. About 24 percent of the $51.5 billion of sales booked in its latest quarter – and two-thirds of revenue growth over the last year – came from China.

In an age when the Federal Reserve is communicating more and more with the public, the public seems to have less and less of an idea what the Fed is going to do next. And there’s a simple explanation for this confusion: economists have a much looser grasp on what causes changes in inflation and employment than they’d like us to believe.