Thousands of layoffs "nearly inevitable" as L.A. faces $1 billion budget shortfall (youtube.com)
LA not allowed to run a deficit.
$300m decrease in revenue, they mark down as due to Federal government decisions, like immigration, which are inflationary.
Most of it is reduction in collection of taxes from businesses and home sales.
Maybe consolidation of deparments. Reduction in employee benefits.
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China will continue to make free, opensource, consumer-friendly, developer-friendly AI, copying and improving and scaling anything done in the West, to destroy profits for Western tech and chip companies. China will make money off AI-enabled devices and widgets. If China destroys the software and only does hardware, who could compete? They can build drones, or robots, or phones.