According to Financial Times News, we’re witnessing a dangerous collision between political radicalism and technological transformation. The hyperscaling of AI is coinciding with Donald Trump’s second, more radical term in office, creating what appears to be temporary stability. Corporate leaders and investors are being distracted from governance breakdowns by massive AI developments and stock market gains. The “two bads” of tariffs and immigration crackdowns are being offset by the “one big positive” of the AI boom. Meanwhile, former IMF official Gita Gopinath warns that a dotcom-sized market correction could wipe out $20 trillion from US investors alone. This precarious balance between political chaos and technological euphoria creates what the FT calls a “goldilocks crash” scenario that could shatter at any moment.
The Precarious Balance
Here’s the thing about this Maga-AI pairing – it’s basically papering over some massive cracks. Corporate America is getting tax cuts and watching their AI stocks soar, so they’re willing to overlook the political circus. But look closer and you’ll see this isn’t stability, it’s distraction. The same technology that’s propping up markets could trigger an economic meltdown that makes 2008 look tame.
And let’s be real – there’s something deeply ironic about an administration that’s openly post-truth presiding over the dawn of artificial general intelligence. We’re talking about algorithms that could replace huge chunks of the white-collar workforce while the government claims it wants to restore working-class stability. How does that even compute?
The China Conundrum
The geopolitical angle here is particularly messy. The Biden administration tried to lock down chip exports, which just made China more determined to build their own stuff. Now Trump wants to proliferate US technology everywhere, but that just spreads the shock and accelerates multi-polarity. And when Nvidia’s Jensen Huang basically says China’s going to win this race anyway, what’s left? It’s like we’re caught between containment strategies that don’t work and proliferation strategies that backfire.
The Bubble Question
What if AI is just… overhyped? I mean, we’ve seen this movie before with the dotcom bubble. But the stakes are so much higher now. A correction of similar proportions would wipe out $20 trillion from US investors and another $15 trillion globally. That’s 70% of US GDP! How would this administration, with its massive deficits and politicized Fed, handle that kind of economic earthquake?
Basically, we’re all hoping for that “goldilocks crash” – big enough to sober everyone up about AI hype and Trumpmania, but not so big that it triggers a constitutional crisis worse than what we’re already living through. But as the FT piece concludes with a nod to that chilling AI potboiler, “I wish I were exaggerating.” If you’re waiting for America to return to normal, it’s not clear how we get there from here.
