Goodbye 2025, Hello 2026!

0:00Ryan Knutson:This episode of The Journal is presented by Intuit Enterprise Suite. If your finance team spends more time finding data than using it, if there's one entity here and one here and one here and one here, if scaling your business feels like starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite, the AI native ERP is here. From the makers of QuickBooks. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP. This episode is brought to you by Alexa Plus. Say hello to Alexa Plus and see how Alexa can do more for you. Need tickets to that last minute show? Craving your favorite restaurant? Sit back, relax, and talk naturally.

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1:04Ryan Knutson:Hey, Jess. Hey, Ryan. How's it going? Pretty good. How about you? Not bad. So it's Monday, December 29th. And I know there are some people who are warming up their frigid cars right now, trying to get to work. And then there are some people who are cozy in their pajamas by fire and have the rest of the week off. Right. Which one of those people are you? The latter, I think, today. What about you? So I've got the pajamas, I've got the rest of the week off, but this time of year is so chaotic that... Can I make a case to you for why I think Christmas and Valentine's Day should switch places? Yes.

1:48Ryan Knutson:Have I not told you this yet? No. Christmas should be February 14th and Valentine's Day should be December 25th. Why? The reason is because the fall is way too crowded. You've got Halloween, less than 38 days later, you've got Thanksgiving. Then less than 30 days later, you've got Christmas. It's too busy. There's too much going on. You just saw your family and traveled around Thanksgiving and then you're going to do it again 30 days later. And then you've got the doldrums of the wintertime. You've got January and February with like nothing to look forward to. It would be perfect if you just have Valentine's Day, the romance holiday, leading right into New Year's Eve, another romance holiday.

2:27Ryan Knutson:You kind of get your date set up for, you know, what you're going to do on New Year's Eve. And then January 1st comes around and that kicks off like six weeks of the Christmas season. And then at the bottom of winter, you know, you've got Christmas, the middle of February. I mean, I agree with you philosophically. I think this is a great idea. I'm just not sure who you would pitch it to. The Christian tradition? The Christians have done it before. They've done it before. Tell the Pope. All right, sorry. This is not why we brought you here today. We actually have a little holiday treat. Just one more episode to look back at the biggest stories that define 2025.

3:05Right. We called up the top editors at The Wall Street Journal to ask them what they thought the top stories of the year were, as well as what they're looking ahead to in 2026.

3:19Ryan Knutson:So here's the first one from D.C. Hi, this is Damian Pelletta, Washington coverage chief at The Wall Street Journal. One of the biggest storylines that we've been following here in 2025 has been President Trump's implementation of his economic agenda, both through a huge tax cut package that passed Congress in the middle of the year, and then all along the way, these tariffs that the president has imposed on a number of countries. And the tariffs remain a big story. The Supreme Court now is reviewing his power to impose these tariffs. And that's a decision that we could have soon to determine whether or not he can continue to impose tariffs against countries without congressional approval.

3:56So that's going to be a big storyline going forward. The economy is a huge story right now, especially for many Americans who remain unsettled, even though we have low gas prices and a high stock market. Many Americans are feeling a disconnect with this economy, and this is creating mounting pressure on President Trump. That's going to be a big story that we follow in 2026 as the White House is hoping to save the Republican majority in Congress. It was a very busy 2025, and it's going to be even busier 2026 here in the Washington Bureau.

4:28Ryan Knutson:Yeah, that Supreme Court ruling on whether President Trump's tariffs are illegal is going to be a really big story. Who do we have next? I'm Sarah Krauss, and I'm the technology and media editor at The Wall Street Journal. The AI race was hands down the biggest story for the tech and media team this year. We've covered the battle for talent among top AI labs like Meta, Google's DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, the safety concerns that these new powerful tools raise, the otherworldly sums of cash being invested in building out AI infrastructure, and more recently, concerns about an AI bubble, and whether it can work towards turning a profit.

5:05So why does this all matter? This powerful technology that these leading labs are building could one day become smarter than humans. They're already transforming how we work, find information, and interact with devices and each other. So heading into 2026, we'll be watching closely for signs that the big names in AI can actually make money from the tools they're building and continue to spur adoption of those tools. We're also closely monitoring U.S. competition with China in AI, the race to develop new advanced chips, and America's progress in AI's infrastructure build-out. No shortage of great stories to cover next year.

5:39I mean, AI, easily one of the biggest stories of the year, if not the biggest business story of the year.

5:45Ryan Knutson:It could be the biggest story of humanity's entire existence if it turns into artificial general intelligence. Yeah, I laugh, but it's true. Either that or it'll pop and bring down the entire U.S. economy with it. Yeah, I mean, to your point, Ryan, like the money is something that the Wall Street Journal is going to continue to be following. And in fact, that's something that our finance team will be looking into in 2026. Hi, this is Amol Sharma, the journal's financial editor. For 2026, one thing we'll be super focused on is the financing of the AI arms race and the worries that a bubble is forming right now in AI.

6:22Ryan Knutson:And we've been documenting the enormous sums of money that have been flowing from Wall Street into all these data centers that are being built out for the open AIs of the world. So if real problems start to emerge, there could be all kinds of triggers that send us down the wrong path in AI. You could see companies delaying projects or pulling back even slightly on spending commitments. Things like that would definitely spook the markets. Lenders could, of course, demand higher returns, driving up the cost of capital for AI companies. All these things would be really damaging for sort of the momentum of the AI buildout.

7:02Ryan Knutson:But it's also possible that the jitters that we've been seeing in the markets lately about AI are just that, just passing jitters. So we'll have to see how it plays out. And the last editor that we have a message here from is from a very familiar voice. And I will let her introduce herself. Hello, Journal Podcast. It's so nice to be back. This is Kate Leinbaugh, corporate editor of The Wall Street Journal and former co-host with Jess and Ryan of The Journal Podcast. I would say this year has fundamentally changed the foundations of how businesses operate. From Trump's tariff policy to the EV policy to food policy, it has upended how business is done in America, and I'm not sure there will be a resumption of before times.

7:53So looking ahead, we are watching everything from how AI changes how businesses operate and the workplace to how tariff policy changes the global economy. Will jobs come back to America? This is a big question. Will robots take those jobs? These are the sorts of things we're going to be looking at. And we're also watching how these fundamental changes to the foundations of what had been the global economy will affect profits, will affect businesses, will affect jobs, will affect the economy, how that all trickles down and what it looks like in dollars and cents.

8:38Ryan Knutson:Thanks, Kate. It's just so great to hear your voice. Before we go, we have one more thing for you guys. We have a little present. We made a playlist, Ryan and I, of some of our favorite episodes of the year. It has everything on it from why the witch economy is booming to one of the last interviews with Jane Goodall before she passed away. And all five episodes of Camp Swamp Road, our amazing miniseries that if you haven't listened to yet, you really, really need to. And now you've got a great chance. There's a link to the playlist in our show notes. We hope you guys check it out. And we just want to say thank you so much for listening to the show.

9:15Ryan Knutson:this year. We are so lucky that we get to do this job and be with you guys every day. Thank you for joining us. Happy New Year. And we will be back in your feed on January 5th. Thanks for listening, everybody.

9:45to answer the most pressing questions of the day. From finance, tech, and economic policy to sports, streaming, and style, we're bringing together today's most compelling newsmakers for two days of conversations on what's ahead. Listeners of this podcast can access exclusive discounted rates by visiting wsj.com slash future. That's wsj.com slash future.