#148 - Jeff Booth - Debt v AI: The Trillion Dollar Collision

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Feb 17, 2026

Jeff Booth, entrepreneur and author of The Price of Tomorrow, argues technology makes markets naturally deflationary. He discusses how debt-based money clashes with exponential AI-driven productivity. Topics include AI accelerating scarcity creation, inflation as hidden extraction, politics and centralization under broken money, and Bitcoin as a potential protocol-level fix.

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INSIGHT

Free Market Tends Toward Deflation

The natural state of a free market is deflation because entrepreneurs must create more value than existed before.
Debt-based money that expands forever blocks productivity from flowing to people and concentrates wealth.

INSIGHT

AI Accelerates Deflationary Pressure

Exponential technology (AI) drives prices toward zero for many goods and services, accelerating deflation.
A debt-based monetary system cannot accommodate that deflationary pressure and therefore must resist it.

INSIGHT

Inflation Is Hidden Extraction

Inflation functions as hidden extraction from the public and diverts value into assets and power networks.
That extracted money concentrates political and social control among a few.

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In this episode, Jeff Booth explains why the natural state of a free market is deflationary and why a debt-based monetary system can't allow it.

We discuss AI as an acceleration event: exponential productivity should make life cheaper, but the system has to create scarcity to keep debt serviceable.

We cover how inflation functions as hidden extraction, why regulation favours monopolies, why politics becomes a fight over who controls broken money and why AI will intensify centralisation, surveillance, and social conflict unless the monetary layer changes.

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TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 – Elon's "No Money" 00:02:21 – Deflation is Natural 00:05:50 – Paper-fold Acceleration 00:08:05 – Debt vs Abundance 00:10:17 – Inflation = Extraction 00:15:34 – Politics Polarises 00:21:28 – One Question Only 00:28:01 – Bukele's Example 00:33:33 – Bitcoin as Protocol 00:41:02 – AI + Money Clash

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CONTACT PETE › Website – http://petermccormack.com › Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact › Email – me@petermccormack.com › Instagram – /mccormack555 › X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/

CONNECT WITH JEFF BOOTH › X/Twitter – https://x.com/JeffBooth › Website – https://jeffreybooth.com/

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FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR › https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/ › https://x.com/curttayloruk/

EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK › https://x.com/ConorM04

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