RealClearMarkets Articles

Data centers have become a polarizing election topic, with voters across the country pushing back against new data center projects over concerns about electricity prices, water consumption, land use, and the strain on local infrastructure. A recent poll by the University of Pennsylvania found that 61% of Americans oppose construction of new data centers in their area, with only 14% supporting them. As a result, candidates in both parties are responding by proposing new restrictions, tougher permitting requirements, and even pauses on new development. At the same time, demand for compute...

Traditionally, innovative start-ups, with new technologies and ambitious goals, turned to venture capitalists when they sought to finance new initiatives. Venture capital firms (VCs) are known for their willingness to take on high-risk investments when no one else will, and thus, are often the reason behind success stories for hard-to-build high risk innovation such as robotics or advanced technologies Yet, in one critical space, such VC-led innovation is changing. VCs are no longer the primary investor in defensive startups, instead legacy investors like private banks, defense organizations...

Microsoft just told us something it may not have meant to tell us. When the company cut its engineers’ monthly AI spending allowances from $100,000 to $10,000, a ninety-percent reduction in its Cloud and AI division, the sanctum sanctorum, it raised a question the industry has been remarkably reluctant to answer: What are all those tokens actually producing? Start with the obvious: $100,000 was the cap, not the bill. Few engineers were actually spending that much. Microsoft has separately reduced its internal Claude spending by more than a third, partly through cheaper models and...

Arizona’s economic relationship with Taiwan is growing. Taiwan-based Gudeng just opened a semiconductor facility in Glendale, AZ, and Taiwanese leaders recently cut the ribbon on the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Phoenix. As the Grand Canyon state moves to strengthen trade relations, China has warned Governor Hobbs about fostering "political ties” with the island, highlighting the diplomatic strains in America’s microchip supply chain. As artificial intelligence drives demand for chips, Taiwan's investment in the U.S. offers an opportunity to boost domestic...

The democratization of cancer cures is at our proverbial doorstep. See the $480,000-a-year cancer pills referenced in the title of this opinion piece. They read as nosebleed expensive until it’s remembered that time is the most precious commodity of all, and Revolution Medicines’ daraxonrasib pill is elongating the lives of those with pancreatic cancer. Factor in the broader truth that there’s more wealth than ever chasing these increasingly effective pharmaceutical cures, and a highly optimistic present and future emerges. For all. That’s because it’s not just...

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, voters in 16 states will be voting on 30 tax measures this November.   Most of these measures would reduce income taxes and property taxes for state residents.  But two states stand out for their economically harmful measures—-California with a wealth tax on billionaires and Colorado with a proposal to increase individual and corporate tax rates to among the highest in the country. While these measures might have a populist appeal, both of them would do substantial economic damage to their states.  Both...

If you’re a U.S. citizen, you’re at home anywhere in the world. No other nationality can claim this. While the British empire spanned the globe (1/4th of the world’s land mass) after WWII, it’s not as though the British found themselves at home in each jewel within the crown. The U.S. is different. Consider the dollar. Without excusing Treasury’s routine mismanagement of the currency since 1971, the dollars that Americans have sitting in their pockets are almost literally accepted as exchange media anywhere in the world. While a U.S. bellman, waiter, or Starbucks...

America loves ambition and a good story. Yet, narrative alone will not make a business viable. Elon Musk’s boldness was in evidence when SpaceX, which went public in June 2026, held its first earnings call. During that session, President Gwynne Shotwell announced that starting in 2027, Starlink, SpaceX’s wireless division, would begin transitioning to become a full-fledged mobile provider. In so doing, she put the “Big Three carriers” – Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile – on notice. This announcement sounded compelling – until one actually...

I went to the University of Virginia. I saw things. Years ago, when the Rolling Stone article came out, I immediately knew it was not true. There were many logical inconsistencies, but moreover, I had experience witnessing the ways of the world and an acute knowledge of social mores at places like the UVA. When I attended, there were virtually no rules. It was wide open. During all the commentary surrounding the Rolling Stone story, I used the faculties of my left brain and social media to explain why the story was obviously untrue. But as I stated then, the real issue was putting young men...

Bill Pulte has moved aggressively since taking over the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), promising greater competition and lower costs for mortgage borrowers. Each of his initiatives has popular appeal. But taken together, they risk producing serious unintended consequences — leaving taxpayers with more risk while the promised borrower savings may prove illusory. So far this year, FHFA has introduced lender choice between Classic FICO and VantageScore 4.0, with FICO 10T approved for future use. Just last week, it put FICO and VantageScore on the same loan-level price adjustment...

In 1948, the German philosopher Josef Pieper warned of a world of "total work," in which life is subsumed in labor and the capacity to enjoy genuine leisure goes into full retreat. That is where we stand today, and it did not happen overnight. In 1975, among married couples, 31 percent had both spouses working full time. Today, over half of these couples are punching in for over 40 hours each. What is happening within the hours Americans are allegedly at rest? They’re dealing with “funflation". Often, the phenomenon is more often painted as evidence that the consumer is flush with...

Wall Street has gotten nervous about data centers, and the nervousness has spread to everything that touches them. Oracle sent a force majeure notice on a New Mexico campus whose pipeline still lacks a permit. Holtec, which builds nuclear reactors, suspended a $900 million offering and cited uncertainty in data center development. Aggreko, which rents industrial generators, pushed its listing back. The last two are a step removed from data centers, making it clear that the market is repricing a whole category. Investors are right to be cautious, but lumping all data center projects together...

There’s no there there to the French national debt story. Basic market signals confirm as much. What has the market-friendly media in the U.S. worked up is the rise in yields on 10-year French government debt. They’re at highs last seen in 2002. Which is the point. Markets, as previously alluded, don’t reflect all the expressed alarm about France’s debt. In 2002 France’s national debt was 913 billion euros. In 2026, the tab is up to $3.5 trillion. Please stop and think about those numbers for a bit. France’s country debt has literally quadrupled since 2002,...

Lawfare has long been used against politicians in Europe, including Marine Le Pen (the leading candidate for the French presidency will now have to campaign wearing an ankle bracelet), and Alternative for Germany (the leading party in several German states in elections slated for the next 60 days). In Eastern Europe, the establishment plays even rougher. Former Polish prosecutor general Zbigniew Ziobro, of the conservative PiS party, was granted political asylum by Hungary and then stripped of that status when EU-backed Peter Magyar replaced Viktor Orban. Romanian politician Calin Georgescu...

AI can brighten a room, erase clutter, swap out furniture, even conjure a fireplace that doesn’t exist. The use of the technology has become so pervasive in real estate listings that legislators are taking notice—with California and Wisconsin already requiring disclosures—as buyers and renters increasingly discover that what they saw online bears little resemblance to what they find in person. That AI can make a property look like something it is not, blurring the line between enhancement and deception, is an obvious problem. Also, when the technology turns from images to...

Microsoft is rationing artificial intelligence. Not selling less of it — using less of it, inside its own walls. The Information reported this week that Microsoft has cut its projected spending of more than $1 billion a year on Anthropic’s AI models — for its own employees’ use — by over a third. In the Cloud and AI division, monthly AI allowances were cut from $100,000 per employee to about $10,000. Engineers are being steered off Anthropic’s Claude and onto Microsoft’s own GitHub Copilot. Meta is doing the same, roughly halving its internal users of...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to drive a human knowledge explosion. The latter speaks to the genius of machines that do and think for us. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Backtracking a bit, it’s crucial to address a recent Wall Street Journal piece about Google “pushing” AI into U.S. schools, and in the process allegedly bringing on a “cognitive stunting” among students. According to Journal reporters Shalini Ramachandran, Georgia Wells, and Molly Reinmann, Google’s Gemini has made it possible for students to “farm out” work...

Here’s one thing you’ll never hear out of the mouth of a shopper: “I sure like going to Costco, but I wish they had higher prices.” Yet believe it or not, there’s a band of fanatics on the left who are so determined to police how businesses compete that they risk making your next shopping trip more expensive. They call it “economic fairness.” Families standing at the checkout counter deserve to know what this "fairness" will cost them. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission settled a lawsuit brought by the Biden administration against Southern...

Data centers will eventually drive down electricity prices, perhaps to zero. If not, close to zero. Which means Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is on to something. And that's true even if he was simply backtracking.  For background, we turn to “revelations” of Ramaswamy’s past support for data centers. Supposedly it was energetic. Gasp. Polling data in the present indicates that data center enthusiasm is bad politics, which explains Ramaswamy’s efforts to put a happy face on his past apostasies.  Specifically, Ramaswamy has called for free...