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The bottom line

The U.S. is building a $500 million supercomputer that can reach “exascale” performance. That’s a quintrillion calculations per second, seven times faster than today’s fastest system. China has 227 machines on the top 500 list of the world’s most powerful computers, compared with 109 for the United States. The New York Times

Thanks to genetic selection, the U.S. chicken industry can now produce a 6.3-pound bird in 47 days, roughly twice as fast as 50 years ago. Meat processors such as Tyson Foods produced a record 42 billion pounds of chicken in 2018, but suspect that the intensive breeding has given some chickens “woody” or stringy meat. The Wall Street Journal

Baseball player Mike Trout is finalizing a 10-year, $360 million extension with the Los Angeles Angels that would give him the largest contract in professional sports history. His deal would be worth a total of $426.5 million and raise his annual salary to $36 million until 2030, eclipsing the 13-year, $330 million contract that Bryce Harper signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. Los Angeles Times

The U.S. will account for 70 percent of growth in the world’s oil production over the next five years, according to the International Energy Agency. Production is expected rise to 19.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2024—4 million barrels per day more than in 2018. Most of the increase is expected to come from shale fields, which will account for almost half of U.S. oil output. Axios.com

Four companies—Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestlé, and Danone—produce 6 million tons of plastic waste every year. Coca-Cola alone produces 3 million tons, but plans to make all of its packaging recyclable within six years. CBSNews.com

A tariff pothole for vintage cars

The threat of U.S. tariffs on car imports is hurting a part of the automobile market you might not expect, said Jill Martin Wrenn in BBC.com: classic cars. The value of vintage cars soared 192 percent between 2006 and 2017, as “wealthy investors turned to putting their money into luxury assets” such as Ferraris and Aston Martins. But prices stayed flat last year; one dealer says 2018 “stands out as one of the worst” of his 42 years in the business. Currently, both new and classic cars and parts are taxed at a 2.5 percent rate. The 25 percent tariffs President Trump has threatened would increase that tenfold. There is no suggestion of an exemption for classic cars, and a levy that big could bring sales to a near halt. Buyers and sellers, though, remain confident at the highest end of the rare car market. Last August, a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO was sold for a record $48.4 million at auction. ■

March 22, 2019 THE WEEK
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