Your grocery store may soon price gouge you in real time

From the outside looking in, America appears to be running a beta test for societal collapse. Inflation is rampant, fraud is basically legal if you steal enough, foreclosure rates are climbing, AI is vaporizing white-collar jobs, beer sales are falling flat nationwide and grocery stores are preparing “surge pricing” because apparently Uber for eggs was the next logical step.

Oh, and San Francisco now wants to actually ban enjoying a beer and cigarette on bar patios. Because naturally, that’s the emergency they decided to tackle first.

Welcome to this week.

A former California mayor has agreed to plead guilty after federal prosecutors accused her of secretly acting as an agent for the Chinese government before taking office. According to the DOJ, she pushed pro-Beijing messaging inside the United States while building her political career. Apparently foreign interference only matters when the “wrong people” are doing it.

President Trump also ordered federal agencies to prioritize American-made products and crack down on loopholes allowing foreign companies to cash in on taxpayer-funded contracts. Buying things from your own country is now somehow considered a radical political idea.

Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is backing a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour. Economists warn the move could hammer small businesses and force prices even higher, especially in red states. Your next burger combo may soon come with financing options.

And finally, President Biden’s lawyers are reportedly trying to block the release of audio recordings tied to Biden’s interviews with his ghostwriter. In Washington, the harder they fight to hide something, the more everyone assumes it’s probably worth hearing.

Americans are now leaning harder on credit cards just to keep gas tanks full as rising fuel prices continue squeezing household budgets. New data shows lower-income families are getting hit the hardest, with many spending more than 10% of their income on gas alone after oil prices surged during the Iran conflict. Nothing says “strong economy” quite like financing your commute to work.

Meanwhile, inflation came roaring back in April, with consumer prices jumping 0.9% in a single month and annual inflation climbing to 3.8% — the highest level in nearly three years. Wall Street is increasingly worried inflation is becoming permanently baked into the economy. Remember when they said inflation was “temporary”? Good times.

And finally, banks repossessed more than 42,000 homes in just one month as foreclosure activity surged 18% from last year. The spike is raising fresh concerns that financial pressure is starting to crack American households in ways that feel very familiar to anyone who lived through 2008. The economy may look great on cable news, but somebody should probably tell the people losing their homes.

Amazon is now rolling out 30-minute delivery across dozens of U.S. cities because apparently waiting two hours for batteries and protein powder has become unacceptable suffering for modern Americans.

Nike is also getting sued after allegedly passing tariff costs onto customers through higher prices, then keeping the money after those tariffs were later ruled invalid. Nothing captures corporate America better than charging customers extra “because government” and then quietly keeping the refund anyway.

Meanwhile, new research shows AI could wipe out millions of white-collar jobs heavily staffed by women, especially in administrative and clerical roles once considered stable careers. Corporate America spent years telling kids to avoid blue-collar work and learn computers. Unfortunately, the computers learned back.

Walgreens announced it’s shutting down another Chicago store after losing more than $1 million to theft, with executives saying criminals regularly smashed open lock boxes while sales collapsed. Turns out letting people casually loot your store every afternoon is not an ideal long-term business strategy.

And finally, Walmart is cutting or relocating roughly 1,000 corporate workers while Cisco is slashing nearly 4,000 jobs as companies continue restructuring around artificial intelligence. The future of work increasingly looks like a handful of engineers managing software that replaces everyone else.

Last Week:

Last week we asked whether your financial health was better or worse compared to 24 months ago. “Worse” narrowly won with 44% of the vote. Honestly, with inflation still eating everyone alive, that result could’ve been far uglier.

This Week

Grocery stores are rapidly rolling out digital price tags that can change instantly across entire stores. Critics worry it opens the door to “surge pricing” — meaning prices could jump before hurricanes, snowstorms, or even Super Bowl weekend when demand spikes.

So this week we want to know…

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Graduates at North Carolina State University:
One commencement speech turned into the greatest graduation gift imaginable after a donor announced he and his wife would personally pay off the entire senior year debt for graduates. Suddenly those “follow your dreams” speeches hit a little harder.

Dallas, Texas:
While half the country debates how to fix cities people are fleeing, the Dallas suburbs are exploding in growth. Four of America’s five fastest-growing cities are now in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Turns out affordable living and functioning infrastructure still sells pretty well.

Democratic Senate Candidate Roy Cooper:
The former North Carolina governor is getting hammered after new data showed hundreds of inmates released under his COVID-era prison policies were rearrested within two years. Nothing says “successful criminal justice reform” quite like speedrunning repeat offenders back into the system.

Yet Another Democratic Politician:
A Texas Democratic official was arrested for drunk driving for the third time after already facing similar charges in recent years. At this point, her campaign slogan may need to become “Drive Hammered. Stay Elected.”

Kamala Harris and Democrats are getting desperate.

They’re now openly admitting they don’t like the system the Founding Fathers created — because it makes it harder for them to win. Translation: if democracy doesn’t benefit them, change the rules.

The people screaming “save democracy” suddenly seem very interested in tearing it apart for power.

Social Security recipients could receive a larger cost-of-living increase in 2027 as inflation continues heating back up. The Senior Citizens League now predicts a 3.9% COLA increase next year, which would push the average monthly retirement check up by about $81. Seniors say it still doesn’t feel like enough as groceries, insurance, healthcare, and housing costs continue climbing faster than most fixed incomes can handle.

Translation: Congratulations — your government check is getting bigger because your money is worth less.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was forced into a major retreat this week after backlash exploded over his plan to hammer homeowners with sweeping property tax hikes. Critics warned the proposal would push even more wealth, investment, and middle-class families out of the city, forcing the mayor to quietly remove the tax increase from his latest budget proposal.

Translation: Turns out endlessly taxing the people still willing to live in New York has limits.

Vice President JD Vance announced the Trump administration is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California, accusing the state of failing to aggressively crack down on fraud inside the system. Vance also warned every other state that federal funding could be next if they don’t start taking Medicaid abuse more seriously.

Translation: Washington suddenly discovered government programs get very expensive when nobody checks where the money is actually going.

A Texas family is suing OpenAI after their 19-year-old son died from an overdose allegedly linked to advice he received from ChatGPT about mixing kratom and Xanax. The lawsuit claims the AI platform failed to stop dangerous conversations and provided guidance it was never qualified to give in the first place.

Translation: Society handed teenagers unlimited access to artificial intelligence before fully deciding who’s responsible when things go horribly wrong.

The crypto industry scored a major victory this week after the Clarity Act cleared a key Senate committee vote, moving one step closer to becoming the first major U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets. Supporters say the bill would finally bring predictable rules to crypto, while critics warn it could create new risks for consumers and the financial system.

Translation: Washington spent years pretending crypto didn’t matter. Now they’re scrambling to regulate an industry they barely understand.

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A Florida governor candidate unveiled a proposal this week to transform Spirit Airlines’ abandoned $250 million headquarters into a massive public vocational high school focused on aviation and aerospace training. The idea comes after the collapse of the ultra-budget airline left thousands unemployed and another giant corporate office sitting empty.

Translation: America may finally be remembering that not every teenager needs $200,000 in student debt to have a successful career.

Residents in Georgia were furious after discovering a massive data center had quietly used nearly 30 million gallons of water through improperly connected and unbilled pipes while locals dealt with weak water pressure. The company eventually paid roughly $147,000 after the issue was uncovered, with no additional fines issued despite the enormous usage.

Translation: You’ll get fined immediately for watering your lawn during a drought. A billion-dollar data center apparently gets a payment plan.

A Florida university commencement speaker was loudly booed after celebrating the “AI revolution” during a graduation speech to media and communications students — many of whom are now entering industries being aggressively disrupted by artificial intelligence. The speaker appeared genuinely shocked that graduates weren’t thrilled about competing with software for their first real paycheck.

Translation: Telling students AI will replace their jobs during graduation is apparently not the inspirational moment she imagined.

The city of Austin is preparing to pay $35 million to men wrongly accused in the infamous yogurt shop murders case after decades of alleged police misconduct destroyed their lives. One of the men even landed on death row before the convictions eventually collapsed. If approved, it would become the largest payout in Austin history.

Translation: The government can ruin your life for decades… then hand you the bill for its own mistakes afterward.

A stay-at-home mother went viral after sending her husband a detailed $522,000 invoice covering pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, night nursing, and household labor after he called her a “mooch” for not working. The husband reportedly apologized almost immediately after seeing the breakdown.

Translation: Half the internet thinks she proved a powerful point. The other half thinks marriage now needs an accounting department.

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For most of modern history, the rest of the world spent decades trying to get into America. Now, a record number of Americans are trying to get out.

Some are leaving because they’re exhausted by the politics. Others are leaving because they simply can’t afford life anymore. Housing feels impossible, insurance is insane, taxes keep climbing, and many younger Americans increasingly feel like they’re working harder every year just to stand still. Remote work and “digital nomad” visas have also made it easier than ever to pack up and start over somewhere cheaper.

And honestly, there’s a reasonable argument for leaving. If someone can move to another country, lower their stress, cut their bills in half, work remotely, and actually enjoy life again… why wouldn’t they? A growing number of Americans look around and see division, debt, crime, inflation, and a government that appears permanently addicted to chaos.

But there’s another side to this too.

America is still the place millions around the world dream of coming to. The U.S. economy remains the most powerful on earth, American innovation still dominates globally, and despite all the dysfunction, there’s a reason most of the world still follows America’s lead culturally, financially, politically, and militarily. A lot of people leaving today may eventually discover that every country has problems — they’re just different flavors of dysfunction.

And if enough productive, rational, hardworking Americans give up and leave entirely… what exactly gets left behind?

Maybe this is simply a temporary reaction to economic pressure and political exhaustion. Or maybe we’re watching the beginning of something much bigger: the first real moment in modern history where Americans no longer believe their children will have a better future than they did.

We want your thoughts on this one.

Would you ever seriously consider leaving America permanently? And if so… where would you go, and why?

Hit reply and let us know.