NYT op-ed: The AI boom looks a lot like the 2008 housing bubble
nordicinst · x · 2026-10-26
A guest essay in the New York Times by Jen Harris, a former Biden White House economic official, argues AI is fast becoming the largest investment in U.S. history — but its financial plumbing echoes pre-2008 Wall Street tactics.
- Large debts are being hidden off public balance sheets, reminiscent of Lehman Brothers-era practices.
- Pension and insurance managers are snapping up complex products backed by assets of uncertain value.
- A small group of companies are buying and selling a hot product among themselves, inflating demand and obscuring systemic risk.
- If the investments go bad, the fallout could rival 2008, which cost nearly $700 billion in today's dollars and nearly 9 million American jobs.
The core warning: transparency into the financing propping up the AI surge is dangerously low.
Related event: NYT Warns AI Boom Echoes 2008 Housing Bubble(4 posts)→
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