Losing faith in the ‘American dream’

Americans are losing confidence in two main pillars of society: capitalism and democracy. Just under half of Americans say capitalism is working very well or even somewhat well, down from 60pc who said so about a decade ago, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NORC survey. Only 35pc are even fairly sure that the nation offers people the ability to get good jobs and achieve the American dream. Confidence in the nation’s system of government is even lower. Only 12pc say democracy is working very well or extremely well, and a mere 16pc say average citizens have considerable influence on politics. The findings come as Americans this year celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, a moment that has surfaced sharp political divisions over many elements of national identity that unified the US for decades. The survey found that fewer than 40pc of Americans said they were very proud of American history.

(Adapted from “America’s Support For Capitalism Has Declined Over Last Decade,” by Aaron Zitner, published on July 8, 2026, by the Wall Street Journal)

Declining demand for oil

Global oil demand is set to decline for the first time since 2020 as the Iran war wreaked havoc with production and exports in the Middle East, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Friday. World oil demand is set to decline by 1 million b/d year-on-year in 2026, which would mark its first annual decrease since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the IEA said in its latest oil market report. This year’s contraction is “highly skewed in both product and regional terms,” as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — the vital shipping route for oil and gas — disrupted exports through the Persian gulf, the agency noted. A recovery is underway, the researchers added, though they warned renewed escalation in the conflict could complicate matters and further cloud the outlook.

(Adapted from “World Oil Demand set for first annual decline since 2020, IEA says,” by Joseph Wilkins, published on July 10, 2026, by CNBC)

Tech’s philosophers

Ten years ago, as the AI revolution was gathering pace, arts and humanities students were told that, if they wanted to make themselves employable, they should “learn to code”. That may have been bad advice. These days, it is programmers who are nervous about AI taking their jobs. They might consider learning to philosophise. Earlier this year the Federal Reserve Bank of New York published figures showing that American philosophy graduates are more likely to have jobs than their peers who studied computer science. In 2024, the most recent year for which numbers are available, 7pc of those who had studied computer science were unemployed, against just 5.1pc of philosophers. One expert says models trained in the Socratic method are less keen on people-pleasing and more willing to pursue the truth. The biggest question, however, is what sorts of rules and principles models should be trained on in the first place.

(Adapted from “Why Big AI Labs Are Hiring So Many Philosophers,” by The Economist, published on June 24, 2026, by The Economist

Undoing progress

Women have made extraordinary gains in the past few decades across the rich world. They now outnumber men on university campuses in virtually every wealthy country. Their representation among the highest-paying professions, including doctors and lawyers, has nearly tripled in America since 1980. At the turn of the century a British patient was twice as likely to see a man. Last year the number of female physicians exceeded those of men for the first time, according to Britain’s General Medical Council, a public body. Recently, however, the most highly qualified cohort of women in human history has often appeared to be leaning out. In 2024 a study by S&P Global, a compiler of indices, found that women’s share of executive positions in listed American companies fell for the first time in 2023 after nearly 20 years of uninterrupted growth.

(Adapted from “Women’s Progress At Work Is Stalling,” published on July 5, 2026, by The Economist)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 13th, 2026