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This economy looks like shit (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 days ago by Assian_Candor@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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Had a beer with a friend this weekend who works in car rentals. Says numbers are way down. Auto manufacturers don't want to sell cars to rental fleets because they're already having trouble moving inventory to new buyers and don't want a flood of late model second hand cars.

Clean energy, one of the few growth sectors in the US, was unceremoniously shot as part of BBB. They're cutting huge chunks from the government.

Inflation looks like shit. 12 pack of coke is 10 fucking dollars (who cares I'll keep drinking that garbage). My household has certainly pulled back as have many others. And tariffs haven't started to bite yet.

Housing markets are frozen in the south. saw a piece out there this morning that AI capital investment contributed more to GDP than consumer spending.

BLS numbers were so bad Trump shot the messenger. This is only the beginning as well, three and a half more years to go. And then we get Buttigieg I guess? There's no way out.

What are you folks seeing out there? Lets gather up our anecdata

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[–] Beaver@hexbear.net 32 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Feels like AI is the only growth sector and maybe not the best ground to build a sound economic foundation on.

WSJ with an interesting piece this morning about how we are basically pouring our entire productive capacity into building data centers

In the handful of interviews I've had these past months, the hiring managers have very excitedly talked about how their products get used by AI data centers (even if tangentially). In one of them, I pointedly asked what their plan was if the bottom fell out of the AI market, and I got a very hem-haw answer.

It's frightening how much the commanders of capital are betting the farm on AI being as transformational as the hype artists are claiming it's going to be. This is getting way beyond the territory of even the late 90s tech boom.