Andrew Ross Sorkin on What 1929 Teaches Us About 2025

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I'm David Remnick. I'm hearing the same murmurings about the economy that you are. Catchphrases like, correction, bubble, crash, buy gold, reduce your exposure, or more bluntly, cash out. Since the beginning of the year when Donald Trump began his tariff rollout, the markets, even at record heights, have been in turmoil, and if Trump had gone through with all his most unpredictable and punitive tariffs, we might have faced real disaster, a major recession. But he didn't, not quite, and the markets stabilized over the year.

In fact, they've been surging lately. That has some people worried about a threat that could be bigger still. They worry that the economy and its expansion is so dependent on the realm of artificial intelligence, with all its fantastical prospects and unknowns, that we might be in trouble and very soon. Just the other day Sam Altman seemed to suggest that companies like OpenAI might need a government bailout, and that caused a furor. Altman quickly walked that statement back.

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