““One of the largest taxes is one that the government does not even refer to as a tax, inflation. When a government spends fiat currency it creates, the government is transferring part of the value of the money you already hold to itself.” …….. Colin M. McGroarty

Really interesting point about AI investment potentially running ahead of what AI can realistically deliver. I was at a mental healthcare congress recently where AI featured heavily, and I found myself feeling equal parts curious and sceptical. There seems to be quite a gap between what we imagine AI will soon be able to do and what actually proves useful, responsible and workable in practice. I can absolutely see the potential, but I'm still waiting to see how much of the current enthusiasm translates into something valuable — which made your point about the expectations already being priced into AI investments particularly interesting to me.

The piece on Europe also gave interesting food for thought. I am reluctant to see public spending and social systems mainly as economic burdens: some of what costs a society money also creates value that isn't easily captured in GDP or investment returns. How to keep those systems financially sustainable as populations age is obviously a very real question and I agree that simply ignoring the numbers isn't much of a solution!