E.J. Antoni
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Podcast Appearances
I think it's huge, Vince.
It's a great point.
I'm glad you raised it, because if we look at the GDP reports that we were just talking about earlier, we are seeing that investment boost, which is lifting overall economic growth.
And then if you want to talk about individual sectors of the economy,
In this last jobs report, we saw a surge in construction jobs of 30,000.
And if you drill down within construction, where are the jobs being created?
It's in factory construction.
So even though those factories aren't yet employing, let's say, manufacturing workers,
just their construction is employing workers already.
So you're creating high-quality, high-paying, blue-collar jobs in areas of the countries that desperately need that relief on the labor market.
So yes, the investment numbers are already paying dividends, and it's giving us a strategic advantage that a lot of people aren't talking about.
AI, as much as we talk about it as it's a new productivity boom, it's going to increase wages and provide more jobs, et cetera, that's all true.
But I think there are also strategic implications here.
To a certain extent, it might be the new arms race.
And so it's imperative that we get ahead of hostile nations of bad actors like China.
And this is helping us to do exactly that.
Not only are we both economist, Vince, we were both bartenders.
So I'd be happy to debate a fellow bartender.
Thank you, Vince.
Always a pleasure.