What the Economy Really Looks Like When you factor in all the data points, we have an anxious workforce, a business sector seeking opportunity in inflation, and an avalanche of bad policy bearing down on everyone. by David Dayen August 19, 2025 An economy based on individual whim is not one where businesses can plan for the future; indeed, 37,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement in April, and the subsequent flurry of trade adjustments. I think you can see the consequences of uncertainty come forward in the explosion in corporate stock buybacks; that’s a sign of retrenchment, where money that could be deployed or invested is instead pushed out to shareholders. No wonder markets are near all-time highs while ordinary workers feel miserable. The only area where this investment retrenchment and uncertainty is not in evidence comes from the insane capital expenditures for AI computing power, which is propping up the economy almost by itself. That’s why municipal pushback to data centers will be one of the more fascinating developments of the next few years. And it’s why we should pay a lot of attention to whether AI is a viable business, whether its gains are accelerating or stagnating, and whether too much of this capacity deployment is on spec and fated to cause a crash. (…) The Big Tech obsession, fueled by the Trump administration, to frantically build data centers (and keep the stock market high) is leading to soaring electricity prices, which Trump’s policy to kill any renewable source of energy will only worsen.
My letter to reps:
This big tech AI data center boondoggle push is leading to soaring electricity prices. Nobody wants that. What are you doing to stop this AI bubble and these data center plans built on kooky pie in the sky sci-fi nightmares of people with more money than sense? This doesn’t seem like conservative fiscal policy at all for example. And an economy based on a few tech tycoons who seem delusional doesn’t really make for a “free market” does it.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.