The Trial Balance is CFO’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1: Sam Altman’s basic-income study is out
The rise of artificial intelligence has caused many workers to worry about their jobs. And it is on the minds of tech leaders too — including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
So much so that in 2016 Altman offered to fund a guaranteed-basic-income study to see what would happen if 1,000 low-income participants in Illinois and Texas were given $1,000 a month for three years, no strings attached. A control group of 2,000 others received $50 a month. In a blog post introducing the study, Altman explained, “As technology continues to eliminate traditional jobs and massive new wealth gets created, we’re going to see some version of [basic income] at a national scale.”
The results from the basic income study are now in. Here are some of the key findings:
- Recipients were able to make employment decisions that worked best for them and their families. Recipients were 10% more likely to be actively searching for a job and 9% more likely to have applied for a job relative to control participants, though they applied to fewer jobs. Recipients were more likely to select interesting or meaningful work as an essential condition for any job.
- Individual and household income were lower for recipients at the end of the program without the transfer. Not including the transfer, the cash led to a $2,500 to $4,100 decrease in total household income — equivalent to roughly 5% of control participants’ average household income. Including the transfer amounts, the average household income was roughly $6,100 higher for recipients.
- Decrease in problematic drinking. Recipients reported a 20% decrease in alcohol consumption that interfered with responsibilities relative to the average control participant.
- Fewer weekly work hours. On average, recipients worked 1.3 fewer hours per week and were 2 percentage points less likely to be employed. The difference in the number of months employed is equivalent to working roughly 8 fewer days per year.
Part 2: The week ahead
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, July 22
- Chicago Fed National Activity Index, June
Tuesday, July 23
- Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, July
- Existing home sales, June
Wednesday, July 24
- New home sales, June
Thursday, July 25
- GDP, Q2
- Initial jobless claims
- Durable-goods orders, June
- Advanced U.S. trade balance in goods, June
- Advanced retail inventories, June
- Advanced wholesale inventories, June
Friday, July 26
- Personal income, June
- Personal spending, June
- PCE index, June
- PCE, YoY
- Core PCE index, June
- Core PCE, YoY
Part 3: Minor League baseball requires a major CFO-CEO relationship
Reporter Adam Zaki will publish a story this week that takes a look into the strong CFO-CEO relationship between Mike Zielinski and Alan Miller, the CFO and owner, respectively, of multiple minor league baseball teams including the Portland Pickles, Lake County Captains and Cleburne Railroaders, as well as multiple organizations around sports and marketing.
The two, brought together by a passion for sports and business, have taken on multiple leadership roles in organizations within industries that are ripe for growth. Through fun marketing tactics, strategic evaluation of growth opportunities and an interest in new technology, this upcoming two-part story demonstrates some of the benefits a strong CFO-CEO relationship can bring. (7/26 and 7/29)
