In mid-October, CoreWeave’s 2032 notes, issued in June at 9.6%, were trading near 75 cents on the dollar, around a 15% yield. Interest is eating close to a quarter of its revenue. Oracle fell 9% in a session, Nebius 20%, IREN 25% in two weeks.

Same week, TSMC reported a record $23.6B quarterly profit, up 69%, with its fabs full and a waiting list.

I read that through Ricardo’s best field. Every AI builder, whether hyperscaler, neocloud or startup, has to pass through TSMC’s leading-edge fabs, and none of them can route around it. Whatever happens to their business afterward, TSMC has already been paid. The borrowers hold the risk of chips that wear out in three to five years against bonds that run to 2032. The rent got collected on the way in, the same split a housing bust produces between the landowner who sold at the peak and the builder and bank left holding the loss.

I also included a local version from Thunder Bay, where I live. The city is down to one pulp mill and one sawmill, so anyone selling wood has one buyer for each and no one to play against them. Same chokepoint, facing the other way.

Question for this sub: George treated monopoly privileges as land-like. Does rent from a technological chokepoint like a leading-edge fab belong in the same category as location rent, or is it a different animal because it can be competed away? The same week, ASML and Tokyo Electron dropped 7% after China’s CXMT claimed 10% of global DRAM share, which suggests these chokepoints are less permanent than land.

Full piece: https://identitythreshold.substack.com/p/the-ai-buildout-toll-booth

Podcast with Jeremy Lent, tech CEO turned author, about the idea behind his new book Ecocivilization: how we can redesign our economy, democracy and technology so everyone can thrive.

Covers:

• Why, despite the many problems of our civilization, saying it’s “malfunctioning” isn’t accurate
• Why typical metrics of progress like GDP don’t provide a full picture of how people are actually doing
• How we can design a better society for everyone taking inspiration from how ecosystems work
• Ideas to improve our democratic systems, with real world examples
• How we could distribute wealth more widely, from ownership of companies to the benefits of AI

Which countries would most benefit from Georgism?

Some counties have extremely high home prices vs income, and the necessary conditions to support national LVT. Which ones should immediately implement it?

Full details with the methodology and explanations at Policy Engine.

Its clear the the current council rates are regressive and a change to land value tax is more progressive/equitable. As seen on the second-last slide there are a minority of occupants that are worse off, and likely a smaller minority that require defferrals to help them. But the overall change is an improvement.

This has the same thumbnail as his first video on Geoism, but is actually a second video.

According to Lars Doucet, land value in Korea is currently 500%, and over a 50 year period, has ranged from 400-600%. So why is land in South Korea so valuable? It can’t be just density, because while dense, it’s not the most dense country, nor is it the most dense high income country, being beaten out by the Netherlands and Taiwan.

Edit: sorry, I thought I included it, but 500% of GDP. Here’s the link to the post by Lars Doucet that I was referencing: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/does-georgism-work-five-years-later

Anybody in NYC on Oct 23rd 😅? I'm curious what it would sound like.

Alot of bad faith arguments here. I honestly think he is trying to ragebait by how much he is cooking up weird situations where LVT is not suppose to work. Also, does not even touch the other Georgist policies either. Laser focused on LVT and whiffs.

No clankers used in the making of this. This is a GIMP/Paint 3D collage I whipped together.

For some context, this "new law" the title mentions is a policy proposal by the Opportunity Party, a non-incumbent New Zealand political party participating in the upcoming 2026 general election. It is not a law, because it has neither been passed or is about to be passed.

I'm a geezer Hanker (veteran georgist) who loves kibbitzing G-hankum style, so when in San Francisco, give me a dial and we can lunch after meeting on any of my five george-o walking tours. Visit www(dot)TheCommonsSF.org fo' mo'.