Joseph Briggs – AI capex: signal or noise?

About this episode

Joseph Briggs discusses the AI bubble debate and its implications on macroeconomic indicators.

In this episode, Joseph Briggs, economist at Goldman Sachs, joins Dustin Reid to pressure-test the “AI bubble” debate from a top-down macro lens. They examine how big the buildout really is once you scale it properly, why the headline GDP boost can be easy to misread, and what early signals (and non-signals) to watch in productivity and the labour market. The takeaway: What to watch in the data before you change risk budgets. This episode was recorded on January 20, 2026.

People in this episode

Host: Dustin Reid

Guest: Joseph Briggs

Topics covered

• AI bubble
• macroeconomics
• GDP
• productivity
• labour market
• risk management

Keywords

• AI
• capital expenditure
• GDP boost
• productivity signals
• labour market
• risk budgets

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Goldman Sachs

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