AI Stock Market Crash: Are We Repeating 1873? | The Week

France’s unrest is being framed as a feedback loop between street protests and sovereign risk. What began as student anger over school conditions has broadened into a national revolt over living costs, with curfews in some cities, roughly 550,000 marchers, and nearly 2,400 arrests over the weekend. The case made on the show is that higher bond yields and rising debt are squeezing the state just as protesters demand more support, creating a “doom loop” that makes fiscal repair harder.

The episode also argues that France’s deeper problem is generational: the country has protected older citizens through pensions and public spending while leaving younger people to absorb the cost. George Hahn uses that tension to warn that the U.S. could move in the same direction if it keeps privileging existing entitlements over investment in kids.

On Ukraine, the show says Trump’s move to waive new sanctions and tariffs on Russia, plus reports around Starlink and Star Shield, amount to a betrayal of Kyiv and a gift to Vladimir Putin. The final segment turns to AI: the guest says the data-center buildout resembles the railroad boom before the 1873 crash, with overbuilding, opaque debt, and too much capital chasing too little proven demand, even as another guest argues investors are still underestimating how transformative AI could be.