Mark Zandi

We're most worried about inflation in the context of the tariffs and policy and Fed policy and interest rates and everything else.

So I think for the next year, that's when it really matters.

And this will be the case all the way through next October.

Straight up.

Straight up AI.

I mean, the demand for electricity from data centers is enormous.

It's putting a lot of pressure on the electric power grid and generation, and the prices are rising very, very rapidly.

The other thing that happened last month was natural gas prices also jumped because it was cold in many parts of the country, and home heating was important, and that pushed up the price of natural gas.

So that also contributed.

But the cost of light, we buckle up.

I mean, this is not going away.

The data center phenomenon is just in early innings, and so we're going to see a lot of demand from—

these AI data centers, and that's going to juice up electricity prices.

Now, of course, the power companies, you know, they know all this and they're working hard to bring on new capacity.

So, you know, I suspect a year or two, three down the road, this will abate.

But for the next year or so, I think we should all, you know, just be prepared for higher electricity prices.

None of it's good.

I don't see any upside here.

It's all downside, all shades of gray and darkness.

I mean, we know that a cornerstone of a well-functioning market economy like our own is an independent central bank and independent Fed.