Money & Markets

Why Everyone Is Wrong About the AI Bubble

Dec 23, 2025 · 21:43

Maxinomics asks if the AI boom repeats the Dotcom bubble, arguing it rests on three claims — AI keeps getting better, we need more data centers, everyone is using it — tested against the Dotcom era's 'critical lie': $500 billion of fiber, 90% unused as 'Dark Fiber.' It explains how models train on billions of word-guess flashcards, why one video frame packs 1 million times more information than a word, and why Nvidia chips run around the clock — no 'Dark GPU' equivalent — while data centers need power equal to 100 nuclear plants. It covers ChatGPT's retention rebound past Google's 95% benchmark, DeepSeek's $6 million model that cut Nvidia 17% overnight, and Jevons' Paradox — whale oil to kerosene — driving a 50x AI-use surge, concluding AI is a forest expanding, not a bubble.

The Real Reason We Left the Gold Standard

Nov 25, 2025 · 13:41

Host Phil Andrews argues that leaving the Gold Standard was an inevitability forced by the laws of nature, tracing the Welcome Stranger nugget, the Brinks-Mat robbery, and modern gold hoarding. The 1869 Welcome Stranger—172 pounds found 1.2 inches down, hidden two nights by men fearing murder—shows gold's meltability made it untraceable money everyone accepts. In the 1983 Brinks-Mat robbery, thieves unknowingly stole three tons from Heathrow in 27 minutes; only a third was recovered. He explains the Bank of England could issue pounds only as gold entered its vault, but anchoring money to finite metal choked credit as one ounce came to cost 120 tons of earth. He ends arguing that capital controls in India, China, Turkey, and Russia keep gold the real standard for billions.