Young Chinese are looking for dupes and cheaper substitutes for everything from Hermès to travel
Chinese consumers are on a budget and they’re not just scrimping on fashion. It’s now become a trend in China to save on nearly every consumer category, from luxury goods to everyday consumables to travel, with cheaper substitutes. It’s not an entirely new movement — because who doesn’t love a good bargain? — but its…
Tesla factory boss defends knocking on workers’ doors when they’re off sick at home
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the opening of the factory in Berlin in 2022. The boss of Tesla’s German factory has defended the decision to send managers to knock on workers’ doors while off sick. Tesla Gigafactory senior director André Thierig suggested that workers at the plant on the outskirts of Berlin had been…
How Prada is beating the odds and bucking the luxury slump
Prada has done what few luxury companies have been able to do this year: grow. Its sales and stock are both up, thanks to a hot streak at Miu Miu and a winning turnaround strategy. It took something surprisingly small — something that’s been described as “teeny tiny” and “ultra-cropped” — to propel Prada to…
JD Vance has broken through during the 2024 campaign in all the wrong ways
Polls show Sen. JD Vance of Ohio is the least liked of the major presidential nominees and their respective running mates. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio would like to reintroduce himself. He’ll get that chance on Tuesday night when the Republican vice presidential nominee debates Gov. Tim Walz in front of his largest audience yet.…
Crypto Bros 2024How a tiny tribe of fanatical investors could sway the election.
In the grand scheme of the 2024 election, cryptocurrency is not a big deal. It ranks extremely low on the list of priorities for most voters, if it even registers at all. Crypto isn’t really a big deal in the broader financial system either. And yet it’s playing a big role in politics, including at…
AI plagiarism is spreading in US colleges. It’s left professors feeling confused and exhausted.
A professor says AI cheating is like a “virus” in US colleges. When Darren Hick, a philosophy professor, first came across an AI-generated essay in late 2022, he knew it was just the start of something bigger. Almost two years later, Hick says the use of AI among students has become a “virus.” “All plagiarism…
A dockworker strike is set to begin Tuesday. It could disrupt everything from medicine to holiday gifts.
A longshoremen’s strike on shipping docks along the East and Gulf Coasts is set to begin Tuesday, which could cause import and export delays across industries and prompt price hikes. A major maritime workers strike is set to begin on Tuesday, and it means a likely slowdown of imports and exports of key goods —…
DirecTV and Dish Network are combining to form a pay-TV titan
DirecTV announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire rival Dish Network from EchoStar, in a deal that would create one of the largest pay-TV providers in the US. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. If it goes through, the resulting provider would have an estimated 20 million subscribers. The deal will see DirecTV…
China’s stimulus package might not be enough to fix its economy, but it sent stock markets 8.5% higher — a gain not seen since 2008
On Monday, mainland China’s benchmark CSI 300 posted its biggest gain since 2008. Skeptics have been out in force since China rolled out aggressive stimulus measures last week to prop up its ailing economy and markets. It’s just not enough to reverse the magnitude of China’s problems — including an epic property crisis and high…
