With 2024 half-over, the big economic news shows a continued booming marketplace, Nvidia’s colossal ascent and a long-awaited inflation slowdown. But there are more surprises under the hood: Artificial intelligence turned old-school power companies into some of Wall Street’s hottest stocks (even as Intel fails to strike AI gold), meme tokens beat Bitcoin and Elon Musk took a surprising hit to his sky-high net worth. It’s also a rough year for remote workers—unless you live in Louisiana—and the fastest-growing home values aren’t in San Francisco, but Upstate New York.
