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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell attends the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's 2025 Jackson Hole economic symposium, "Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy" in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S., August 21, 2025.
What We’re Watching: Powell signals rate cuts, Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption push, Gaza starvation confirmed
Powell opens door to rate cuts
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank could cut rates as soon as next month during his annual Jackson Hole address, pointing to a slowing labor market and the risk that tariffs could push prices higher. While jobs remain stable, Powell noted that both hiring and labor demand are weakening. Markets jumped on the signal of easing, a win for President Donald Trump, who has been pressing the Fed to cut rates. But as Powell spoke, Trump renewed threats to fire Fed board member Lisa Cook, potentially allowing him to appoint a more sympathetic replacement — though he would face legal hurdles to do so.
Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption push nabs former president
Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, who led the country from 2022 to 2024, was arrested Friday on corruption charges tied to oversees trips while in office. Wickremesinghe came to power following mass protests over the island’s worst-ever economic crisis, and was credited with stabilizing the economy and securing an IMF bailout. That bailout came with harsh austerity, however, fueling public anger and paving the way for his defeat last year to leftist reformer Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who campaigned on rooting out corruption. Wickremesinghe’s arrest is the most high-profile yet in a post-crisis anti-graft drive that has already ensnared 63 Sri Lankan officials and politicians.
Parts of Gaza suffering from starvation, food insecurity group finds
Half a million people in Gaza City and its surrounding areas are suffering from famine, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) concluded. Most other parts of Gaza are experiencing severe hunger, said the food monitor. Whether Gazans have been suffering from starvation has been the subject of much debate – the IPC last year refuted a USAID report that had argued there was famine. Recent images from Gaza, as well the IPC’s reversal, tell their own story. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that there is starvation, and is pressing forward with plans to conquer Gaza City.Trump makes a speech from the Oval Office.
Are Trump’s massive government layoffs permanent?
The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported on Thursday that US employer layoffs surged by 245% last month — the largest spike since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February alone, 172,017 jobs were cut, with over a third stemming from the Department of Government Efficiency, which slashed 62,242 positions across 17 agencies.
However, whether all these firings will be permanent remains uncertain. While DOGE continues its job cuts, many agencies have begun reversing course, reinstating employees — sometimes just days after their dismissal. On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management revised its previous directive, which had instructed agencies to terminate probationary employees (those with less than two years in their roles). The update clarified that individual agencies would have the final say on personnel decisions. Meanwhile, independent review boards, judges, and lawmakers from districts with large government workforces are challenging the layoffs. It is unclear how many more employees might ultimately be reinstated.
Regardless, the first two months of the year saw a total of 221,812 job cuts — the highest since the 2009 financial crisis. The report comes amid growing concerns about the labor market and broader economy, as Trump pushes forward with plans for tariffs, government downsizing, and stricter immigration policies.
AI and the future of work: Experts Azeem Azhar and Adam Grant weigh in
Listen: What does this new era of generative artificial intelligence mean for the future of work? On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with tech expert Azeem Azhar and organizational psychologist Adam Grant on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to learn more about how this exciting and anxiety-inducing technology is already changing our lives, what comes next, and what the experts are still getting wrong about the most powerful technology to hit the workforce since the personal computer.
The rapid advances in generative AI tools like ChatGPT, which has only been public for a little over a year, are stirring up excitement and deep anxieties about how we work and if we work. Artificial intelligence can potentially increase productivity and prosperity massively, but there are fears of job replacement and unequal access to technology. Will AI be the productivity booster CEOs hope for, the job killer employees fear?
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.- The WHO’s AI warning ›
- Artificial intelligence: How soon will we see meaningful progress? ›
- ChatGPT on campus: How are universities handling generative AI? ›
- Podcast: Getting to know generative AI with Gary Marcus ›
- The AI arms race begins: Scott Galloway’s optimism & warnings ›
- Is a dystopian AI future ahead? - GZERO Media ›
Larry Summers: Which jobs will AI replace?
Which jobs are most at risk of being replaced by AI? GZERO World caught up with former US Secretary of Treasury Larry Summers about how technological advances in artificial intelligence could change the labor market. The transformation, he says, could come slowly, then all at once.
“I suspect there's going to be less impact than many people fear in most sectors over the next three years,” Summers tells Ian Bremmer in the interview, “and more impact over the next 10 or 15 years.”
AI will affect some jobs more than others, Summers predicts. For example, AI will likely change the role of doctors, who diagnose people based on large amounts of data before it impacts the jobs of nurses, who provide daily medical care and human compassion. A personal touch is still hard to replace.
More broadly, Summers believes that "traditional hierarchies and ways of thinking" face profound change. And that’s what could make some influential groups nervous. Because AI is likely to affect people who have access to power before regular workers. It’s even probable, he tells Bremmer, that we’ll see “restrictionist and protectionist policies that limit our ability to benefit from these technologies or slow down [their development].”
Watch all of Summers' interview in the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, airing on public television across the US - check local listings.
- AI at the tipping point: danger to information, promise for creativity ›
- How robots will change the job market: Kai-Fu Lee predicts ›
- The AI arms race begins: Scott Galloway’s optimism & warnings ›
- What we need to know to fix US inflation ›
- Podcast: Inflation nation: How Larry Summers predicted skyrocketing prices in the US ›
- The banking crisis, AI & Ukraine: Larry Summers weighs in - GZERO Media ›
- The geopolitics of AI - GZERO Media ›
- Ian Explains: How will AI impact the workplace? - GZERO Media ›
- How AI is changing the world of work - GZERO Media ›
US job growth slows for a fifth straight month, but labor market remains strong.
What We’re Watching: US jobs report & new China, Afghan energy extraction deal
Jobs report: US labor market remains strong
The Fed’s interest rate hikes, designed to battle inflation, have slowed US job growth for a fifth straight month. The American economy added 223,000 jobs in December, well below last year's peak of 714,000 in February but still above expectations of around 200,000. The December numbers put the monthly average for 2022 at 375,000. A slowdown has been in effect since last August, but the labor market is still hot: 4.5 million jobs were created last year, the second highest since 1940. Such resilience likely means more interest rate hikes are to be expected. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate hit a historic low of 3.5%. The leisure and hospitality industry saw the biggest job gains, followed by healthcare and construction, while retail, manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing saw the least. President Joe Biden said the historic job gains are giving American families more “breathing room” amid the “cost-of-living squeeze.”
China, Afghan energy extraction deal reached
The Taliban have signed their first energy extraction deal. A Chinese company has sealed a three-year, $540 million agreement with Afghanistan to drill and extract oil from the Amu Darya basin in the north. The deal spans three Afghan provinces and will create 3,000 jobs. No country officially recognizes the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government, and it has been globally criticized for its treatment of women. Yet, the Chinese have maintained and strengthened their diplomatic presence in the war-torn country, which sits atop an estimated $3 trillion of untapped oil and minerals. Beijing’s presence has been punished by the Islamic State, which attacked and injured several Chinese personnel in Kabul last month. But with tensions rising between Beijing’s erstwhile South Asian ally, Pakistan, and the Taliban, whose offshoots have stepped up their attacks on the nuclear-armed Islamic Republic, we’ll be watching to see whether the new oil deal might convince the Taliban to halt their support of terrorism.