Unf*cking The Republic

The AI bubble is showing signs of a rapid collapse that investors are ignoring. We break down why the market is primed for a crash. Three major developments are signaling that the current AI craze is reaching a breaking point much faster than Wall Street anticipates. From structural risks in China to the accumulation of off-balance-sheet obligations, these warnings are being drowned out by the noise of election cycles and quarterly earnings reports. This analysis examines how major IPOs in the sector are masking underlying instability. By looking past the current hype, we identify the systemic vulnerabilities that suggest an economic correction is already underway for those willing to look at the data. Resources SEC: Anthropic S1 Reuters: In China, the AI bubble has already burst The New York Times: Musk Pledges SpaceX Stock for ‘Every Kid in America’ as Billionaires Push Direct Donations The Telegraph: China’s AI boom turns to bust: Stocks suffer $480 billion wipeout as ‘now we see the bubble bursting’ Fortune: Alphabet’s Google Cloud revenue doubles to $31 billion as cash flow stays deep red CNBC: Alphabet sinks 10% as it holds 2026 capex unchanged, expects significant increase in 2027 Bloomberg: Microsoft’s Surging Cloud Sales Show AI Spending Paying Off The Wall Street Journal: Why Big Tech’s AI Spending Is $3 Trillion Higher Than It Seems InvestingLive: Big Tech’s AI spending is $3 trillion bigger than balance sheets show The Noble Update: The credit market just cut off the weakest companies in America SEC: SpaceX Prospectus UNFTR Resources Video: Don’t Buy the AI Hype Before Watching This Essay: Don’t Buy the AI Hype Before Reading This -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Tom McGovern. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we celebrated 99 years of stubborn optimism with Max’s father-in-law, and took seriously his assessment that it’s 1932, with all the chaos and heartache that implies before something better emerges on the other side. Then we dug into the Anthropic prospectus, which confirms what we’ve been saying: it’s not the railroad or the internet, it’s an accelerant to monopolization, greasing the wheels for the companies that are already winning while the rest of the economy starves. The greatest misallocation of capital in history, right on schedule. Chapters Intro: 00:00:45 Quick Takes: 00:01:26 Phone A Friend: 00:07:52 Memberships: 00:11:03 Max Notes: 00:12:41 Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:26:13 Outro: 00:27:54 Resources The Kiffness: Donald Trump BURP REMIX! Matthew McConaughey On Instagram CNN: What a photojournalist learned after being beaten by Jewish settlers American Redact: Ethan Klein’s Cheating Scandal is Worse Than You Think NBC News: Ramaswamy ad puts Acton’s estranged mother in spotlight as records reveal family’s troubled past Reuters: France’s Le Pen launches presidential bid as protests rattle the nation Mother Jones: Lula’s Surprise Win Blocks Trump’s Push for a Far-Right Brazil Anand Giridharadas: Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City Bloomberg: Anthropic Mum on Investment Grade as It Warns of More Debt The Noble Update: This is going to be the biggest misallocation of capital in history Bell System Memorial: A Capsule History of the Bell System Enclyopedia.com: Surviving the Great Depression Butler Eagle: How did there get to be a ‘Big 3’? More Perfect Union: We Went To Rural Florida: The Healthcare Crisis Will Shock You UNFTR Resources Video: On The Record 10-27-26 (What My 99 Year Old Father in Law Taught Me About Technological Revolutions.) Essay: Anthropic’s IPO Is Very Silly. Video: Phone A Friend: Anand Giridharadas -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Hold Fast. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jared Yates Sexton joins Max to analyze the current state of progressive activism and how to effectively challenge the status quo. After years of audience requests, this conversation brings together two critical voices to discuss the mechanics of movement building. We examine how shaping political narratives remains the most vital tool for the Left, particularly when navigating the complexities of the current administration. The conversation moves beyond the typical punditry to address the practical realities of leftist organizing. We break down the necessity of coordinating ground-level efforts to ensure that progressive goals remain front and center in U.S. politics, rather than being sidelined by mainstream distractions. Resources Jared Yates Sexton Website Jared on Bluesky Dispatches From A Collapsing State Substack The Muckrake Podcast Jared Yates Sexton: The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making Jared Yates Sexton: American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People Jared Yates Sexton: The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis Jared for The New York Times Jared for The New Republic Jared for Salon Dispatches From A Collapsing State: The Case of Hasan Piker: How to Avoid Having a Debate You Can’t Win Dispatches From A Collapsing State: Descent Into Madness: The Ritualization of Death and Fascism UNFTR Resources Video: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton: Left Activism in the Age of Trump Transcript: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton. 5 Non-Negotiables. Max on Straight White American Jesus. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Tom McGovern. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They hit headlines on the French banlieues erupting and what the protests reveal about the global assault on social spending, and Elon Musk promising every American kid a SpaceX share while barely denting his holdings. Then they tackle listener emails on how lifelong Democratic voters find their footing in a movement that’s outpaced the party, Trump’s “we’re all going to die anyway” worldview, and whether the only options are capitalism or the DSA. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:18 Headlines: 00:12:14 Emails: 00:26:50 Beyond the Bullshit: 00:58:37 Memberships: 01:05:02 Outro: 01:05:29 Resources Anand Giridharadas: Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City Fortune: Billionaire Elon Musk says he’ll give every kid in America shares of SpaceX next year—it’ll add up to over $10 billion in stock The American Prospect: Is Paris Burning? World Socialist Web Site: The bond markets, rearmament and the global assault on social spending UNFTR Resources Video: Phone A Friend: Jared Yates Sexton: Left Activism in the Age of Trump -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Intro music by Hold Fast. Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reuters “leaked” information from the forthcoming Anthropic prospectus and the numbers were pretty brutal. But that isn’t stopping all of Wall Street from lining up to invest in yet another AI company (SpaceX) with no discernible path to profitability. In this episode, Max digs through what we learned from the Reuters release and pairs it with other publicly available information on Anthropic to paint a bleak picture of a five-year old company that loses a ton of money but is somehow asking to be valued at around $2 trillion. Max then leads a philosophical discussion about the future of AI and punching babies. (That last part will make more sense in context.) Resources Reuters: Anthropic’s IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs Perplexity Finance: AMZN Perplexity Finance: XOM Perplexity Finance: C Reuters: Anthropic IPO valuation hinges on $190-200 billion 2028 revenue forecast, sources say Yahoo! Finance: Anthropic IPO Filing Reveals a Major Vulnerability: Nearly 50% of Sales Flow Through Amazon and Google as Revenue Concentration Raises Risks: Report AI: Reset to Zero: Anthropic Paces the Frontier, and Floors the IPO Financial Times: Anthropic tells investors it will be profitable for second straight quarter The New York Times: The Fallout From OpenAI’s Revenue Surprise Bloomberg: Anthropic’s Annualized Revenue to Top $100 Billion in 2026, NYT Says TechTarget: Report: Anthropic locks in $518B AI infrastructure commitments Measured AI: Anthropic’s 15+ GW Data Center Build: Claude’s Compute, Campuses, and Chips Fortune: The hidden menace behind Big Tech’s AI arms race: Meta, Amazon, and others are spending billions on hardware that’s worthless in as little as 3 years, says Research Affiliates partner Investing.com: Earnings call transcript: Alphabet beats Q2 2026 estimates, shares fall on capex surge Flowtivity: US vs China AI Models Compared: GPT-6 Astra, Fable 5.1, GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4, Qwen 3.8 BBC News: Amazon finally flows into profit AEI: Who Should Antitrust Protect? The Case of Diapers.com CNBC: SpaceX raises $25 billion in debt sale less than two weeks after IPO Tech Times: Anthropic $15B Credit Line: Banks Commit $1B-Plus Each to Lock In IPO Roles Yahoo! Finance: Wall Street tests lender appetite with $60 billion Broadcom-Anthropic deal Dario Amodei: We Must Pace the Frontier CSI Magazine: FCC says broadband competition is driving faster speeds and wider coverage UNFTR Resources Video: Anthropic, AI, and Why We Need to Talk About Punching Babies. Essay: Mis(Anthropic). Episode: The SpaceX IPO Fraud. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.