Ian Harnett
@ianrharnett.bsky.social
580 followers 210 following 59 posts
Veteran macro-strategist. Co-founder Absolute Strategy Research - all views are my own - not those of ASR. Any likes/reposts do not mean endorsement.
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ianrharnett.bsky.social
Yes. The lessons tend to show the larger players may well survive - but they are not able to escape a pretty harrowing time if this cycle follows those of the past. Thank you for the question. Ian H
ianrharnett.bsky.social
@tonytassell.bsky.social and @raydouglas.bsky.social many thanks again for your help with this article. These pieces are always improved by your efforts - I am always very grateful. Ian H
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Thank you for the kind words. I suspect that price action wi come quite quickly once the process brings to peak - but I think we will see the pre-cursor in falling cashflows of potential buyers of the AI services.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Please read the full Financial Times article. It would be great to have your comments in the FT article itself, or feedback here, my views, especially on what I might have got wrong! It’s important for all to investors to fully appreciate both sides of the argument

www.ft.com/content/c7b9...
The AI capex endgame is approaching
The rapid building of excess capacity both extends bubbles and ultimately bursts them
www.ft.com
ianrharnett.bsky.social
The key point is that the long run adoption of new General Purpose Technologies nearly always see these kinds of capex bubbles - but that over expansion leads to a bust which triggers a process of creative destruction to occur (Schumpeterian Waste), where cheap assets can be broadly accessed.
The AI capex endgame is approaching
The rapid building of excess capacity both extends bubbles and ultimately bursts them
www.ft.com
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Many thanks to @tonytassell.bsky.social at the @financialtimes.com Times for asking me to share my thoughts on why I believe the AI capex boom signals the start of the end-game for this phase of the AI bubble.

www.ft.com/content/c7b9...
The AI capex endgame is approaching
The rapid building of excess capacity both extends bubbles and ultimately bursts them
www.ft.com
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Many thanks to @robarmstrong.bsky.social for including this ASR chart and comment in his recent Unhedged column for the @financialtimes.com. We showed how the US market is not just over-valued but also over-owned
ianrharnett.bsky.social
While society gains from these bubbles in the long run - it is equity holders that pay - often with declines of 70%-80% in the value of their equity holdings.

Visit www.absolute-strategy.com and ask for a free trial of our award winning research.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
However, we highligh that this capex excess is essential to the eventual success of these new technologies.

The reduced cost of capital that these new GPTS see in their ‘bubble’ phases and rapid build out of excess capex. This ‘schumpterian waste’ that is essential to their eventual ubiquity.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
The AI capex boom is the final signal that we are in the end-game phase lf the AI ‘bubble’

We recently wrote a paper for Absolute Strategy Research Ltd clients highlighting how the capex boom in AI is the last of five classic signals that are typically seen as we reach the final stages of bubbles.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
The Nixon tariffs were much smaller in size and only in place for four months - making them a poor starting point for thinking about what ‘might’ happen when the full impact of tariffs hit home…
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Many thanks to Tony Tassell at the Financial Times for publishing my article on lessons from the 1920s and ‘30s on tariffs and markets. It may be coincidence, but profits only fell much as they did in in the GFC were around the tariffs of the early 1920s and early 1930s.

www.ft.com/content/ea29...
Lessons from the 1920s and 30s on tariffs and markets
Investors today might be too complacent about the risks to earnings from slower growth and higher inflation
www.ft.com
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Tony has flagged the provisions in the new Budget Bill that move us closer to a world where capital is explicitly weaponised… not a surprise… but definitely unwelcome for markets. Kind of Tony to repost the FT insight article that we wrote warning of the risk of just such a development.
tonytassell.bsky.social
Wall Street is warning that a little-publicised provision in Donald Trump’s budget bill that allows the government to raise taxes on foreign investments in the US could upend markets and hit American industry. www.ft.com/content/b400...
Foreign tax provision in Trump budget bill spooks Wall Street
Legislation would erode the appeal of US financial assets, banks and investors say
www.ft.com
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Thank you for sharing. I had not see this paper. Ian H
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Many thanks to Jonathan Shapiro at the Australian Financial Review for his coverage of the ASR views on the potential impact and importance of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Sovereign Wealth Fund. This will have an impact, not only in the US, but also for Global investors.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Michael - I think that the answer has to be 'not a lot'.... 😉
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Tony - could not agree more - David Bowers and I were in the US last week suggesting to ASR clients exactly the same things - this is a coherent philosophical shift in regime and that tariffs are a prelude to capital controls and the end of globally portable capital. This as the chart shows why!
ianrharnett.bsky.social
@adamtooze.bsky.social - even more impressive is that you can replace that pre-GFC trend line with actual US productivity! This chart shows the impact of persistent UK policy failures. We use this chart with the ASR clients to highlight the degree to which the UK deserves its low equity valuation.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
This was a recent #ASRchartoftheday a week or two back - available to Absolute Strategy Research Ltd clients via their client relationship manager. If you would like to know more contact us here www.absolute-strategy.com/blog. Or you can follow both ASR and me on LinkedIn for additional insights.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Indeed, while everyone focuses on the strategic risks for the US from foreign holdings of US Treasuries, it's worth noting how a buyers’ strike, or the coordinated sale of some of the the 17.4% of Equities held by foreign investors could also, potentially, have an impact.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Who owns US Equities? As the US market comes under pressure, it is worth looking at how the ownership of the US market has changed in the last 75 years. This has shifted from a market owned mainly by US households, to one where institutions and foreign investors have key holdings.
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Very kind of @nixonsimon.bsky.social to flag my recent article on the #USsovereignwealthfund in his latest #wealthofnations article. We have suggested to @asr_london clients that investors need to take the US SWF more seriously. If you wand to read the article visit www.absolute-strategy.com/blog
ianrharnett.bsky.social
Great to be in Washington DC with my Absolute Strategy Research Ltd co-founder at the start of a week seeing key clients and prospects to talk about the actions that we might expect from the #treasury and the #Fed and what these might mean for #globaleconomics and #assetallocation
ianrharnett.bsky.social
@mccrum.bsky.social nice article. Thank you. It confirms the old saying that ‘if you want to make a small fortune in aviation…make sure that you start with a very large one’!