Is America the Next Roman Empire?

Somehow, Americans found common ground this week: AI might end us all. New polling shows the left and right — who agree on nothing else — both think it's moving too fast and could wipe out humanity. A rare bipartisan moment, for a genuinely terrible reason.

Also tracking: a Manhattan bakery is charging $60 for a loaf of bread, and people are lining up for it. Inflation's fine, they tell us.

New FBI files answer a question nobody could before: who paid to cremate Trump shooter Thomas Crooks. An anonymous donor did, just ten days after the shooting. Crooks' father told investigators he didn't have the money. Somebody else did, and didn't want credit. Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins has asked the obvious question. The FBI hasn't answered it.

Trump weighed in on the AI panic gripping the country and told reporters to relax. "It's going to be more good than bad, but by a lot," he said, days after Anthropic's CEO called for the industry to slow down.

The Supreme Court handed Trump an actual loss this week, rejecting his order restricting mail-in ballots just as states began mailing them for the midterms. The 7-2 ruling said the changes were unlikely to survive review and came too late to implement fairly. Trump called the justices who ruled against him — two of whom he appointed — "not the people I interviewed."

Gavin Newsom told CNN's Jake Tapper he won't run for president in 2028 if Kamala Harris does. "I wouldn't do that to her. I wouldn't do it to me," he said. For now, he says he's focused on the midterms.

The Fed did something it hasn't done in three years: raised rates. The FOMC bumped the benchmark a quarter point to 3.75%-4.00%, the first hike since 2023, after inflation refused to cooperate. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh had already warned this was coming, telling Jackson Hole that "price stability is not self-executing."

Trump's response was predictable. Hours after the hike, he renewed his demand that the Fed cut rates to 1% or lower — a number no economist outside the Oval Office is entertaining, and one he now asks for on a near-monthly basis.

Congress, meanwhile, agreed on something. The House passed the Common Cents Act by voice vote, formally ending penny production. It's cost more to make than it's worth for over a decade. Treasury also gets to test a cheaper nickel.

And the CLARITY Act — crypto's long-promised federal rulebook — is dead for the year. The Senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to debate it, 49-50, with every Democrat voting no. "It's over," said Senator Cynthia Lummis, the bill's biggest champion. The SEC and CFTC aren't waiting around — both say they'll write their own rules regardless.

Warren Buffett, 96, is done running the board too. He stepped down Friday as Berkshire Hathaway's chairman after 55 years, handing the gavel to his son Howard and taking the title of chairman emeritus. Greg Abel already runs the company day to day. "Father Time always wins," Buffett wrote to shareholders. "He has, however, been generous with me."

Corporate America found its voice for Trump this week, right on cue at a G20 meeting in Asheville. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon put it in banker terms: "We have been regulating nonstop for years like barnacles on a boat. You can deregulate, free up capital, free up liquidity and make the system safer." Goldman's David Solomon and Eli Lilly's David Ricks signed on too. The video was produced by Trump's own Treasury Department, in case anyone needed help spotting the coincidence.

Then there's Costco, where Kirkland motor oil just about doubled. A case that ran $30 to $35 for years now costs $58, and Costco is rationing purchases. Blame the usual suspect: Iran conflict disruptions have pushed crude past $109 a barrel.

Airbnb, of all companies, is trying to fix a housing crisis it's spent years getting blamed for. It's putting $250 million into a fund for stalled housing projects, starting with 201 affordable units in Austin — none of which will be allowed to list on Airbnb. Call it penance, or a well-timed PR strategy. Either way, it could unlock $5 billion in construction over the next decade.

And L'Oreal has a real legal problem. Arizona became the first state to sue the company, alleging it hid evidence that its hair relaxer products could cause ovarian and uterine cancer in the women who used them for decades. More than 12,000 similar lawsuits are already stacked up in federal court. L'Oreal says the claims have no merit. The lawyers disagree.

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