What Gas Prices Do and Don’t Tell Us About the Broader Economy

Gas prices may one of the most visible features of how the economy is doing.  We constantly see the rising prices on every street corner, but even as higher prices are a pain it isn’t really the best metric for understanding the broader economy.  It’s not always the case that the economy is falling apart as prices rise and that it speeds ahead if prices are lower.  Gas prices hit everyone differently, but as we see better fuel efficiency and richer households, a better indicator for how much pain is at the pump is how much disposable income people are spending on gas.  Rebecca Leber, senior reporter at Vox, joins us for how that number is still relatively low at the moment.

Next, a couple of recent stories about when an animal or even an artificial intelligence can be considered a person have sparked conversations on the evolving thought on who or what is deserving of moral consideration.  First, is Happy the elephant who was not granted legal personhood in a case in New York filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project.  Second, is the story of the Google engineer who believed that an AI language model had become sentient.  Expert consensus said that no, the AI had not gained sentience and the engineer was put on leave.  Kenny Torella, staff writer at Vox, joins us for what this says about us and how these questions will increasingly be raised.

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