Economists expect 10-year Treasury yield to end year higher
Forecasters expect the 10-year Treasury yield to end this year up from a 4.4% projection in July, according to The Wall Street Journal’s latest survey of economists. The Journal reported that higher yields are expected to persist as a mix of improving growth, new inflationary pressures and concerns about the U.S. fiscal trajectory forced forecasters to re-evaluate assumptions about investor demand.
The Journal’s Oct. 11 10-Point newsletter also reported that nearly half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure and that a wave of health trackers from Apple, Google, Oura, Whoop and Hilo promises insights without the anxiety-inducing arm squeeze. Personal Tech columnist Nicole Nguyen wore five of the devices for a month to test their claims, according to the Journal, and doctors warn the popular devices could give users a false sense of security.
The newsletter noted that the weekend dread known as “Sunday scaries” has become so pervasive that Merriam-Webster recently added the term to its online dictionary. As workloads mount and job security ebbs, employees are logging in on Sundays to tackle unfinished tasks, the Journal reported. Some are fighting back with strict limits on weekend work, including one woman who bought a $30 hourglass to limit her Sunday work to 60 minutes.
The same edition carried the Journal’s analysis of campaign filings showing a crew of virtually unknown donors stepping in to fund “the far left,” as the Journal describes it. In past elections, big donors to progressives were generally older, wealthy hippies or successful Hollywood players, the Journal reported. The emerging group skews younger, is often South Asian or Middle Eastern, and works in fields such as technology and medicine; many had never given to politics before last year but are now donating as much as $1 million each to fund progressive candidates and a new “anti-Aipac” super PAC, according to Maggie Severns, Anthony DeBarros and Kara Dapena.
The newsletter also featured Zusha Elinson’s reporting on California Forever, a walkable suburban development that tech-backed entrepreneur Jan Sramek wants to build 90 minutes from San Francisco. In 2024, developers pulled a ballot measure to exempt the project from county anti-sprawl rules when polling showed it heading for defeat, Elinson reported. Internal emails now show a bitter standoff between the tech-backed developers and local county leaders that helped doom a $3 billion shipyard meant for the site.
Internet-connected cameras — the doorbells on front porches, the traffic cameras at intersections, the security feeds inside homes — have become instruments of modern warfare, according to The Wall Street Journal. Intelligence agencies and hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in the devices to track enemy movements and identify targets, the Journal reported Oct. 11 in its 10-Point newsletter.
“From doorbells to traffic cameras, internet-connected cameras are becoming tools of modern warfare,” the Journal wrote. “They are in our homes, on our doorsteps and along our streets.”
The Journal said its reporters investigated the use of hacked cameras in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East. In one case they documented, hackers took control of a camera in Crimea and discovered a previously unknown Russian air base that Ukrainian forces later attacked.
Artificial intelligence has made it easier to hack the cameras and analyze footage at scale, according to the Journal.
The Journal said the vulnerabilities extend well beyond the battlefield. With an estimated 1.2 billion internet-connected cameras worldwide, weak passwords, outdated software and poor Wi-Fi security can leave home cameras exposed, the paper reported, and it pointed readers to guidance on protecting the devices from prying eyes.