The net $5.5T the fed printed had to go somewhere. AI Arms Race was the answer. And when the models got good, then we needed agentic to create unbounded demand for inference just as there was unbounded demand for training.
The graph is horrifying. Before the 2008 crisis, less than $1 trillion. By the time of the 2020 crisis, it had hit 4, then in the next few years more than doubled to $9 trillion. It may contribute to explaining why the rich are swimming in free money while the underclass can't afford to live anymore. With AI eating up the job market, we seem to be headed for another even bigger crisis.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL