Bloomberg Talks · Oct 2, 2026
With Rebecca Patterson, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Rebecca Patterson told Bloomberg a recent Brookings paper put AI-related capital spending at 3.6% of US GDP, sustained for about a decade.
Most economists debate whether the AI buildout is a bubble. Patterson's framing skips that argument entirely: she thinks the economy has too much of a good thing happening at once, and that is itself the problem central banks cannot fix.
"That's an incredible, incredible statistic."
Patterson is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who previously served as chief investment officer at Bessemer Trust and chief investment strategist at Bridgewater Associates, and now co-hosts a CFR podcast on central banks.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 4 arguments that matter.
Key Takeaways
AI capital spending now runs at 3.6% of US GDP, sustained for about a decade, per a Brookings estimate she called "incredible"
The spending pulls construction workers into data centers and competes with the Treasury market for capital
Government bond yields have reset higher structurally, not temporarily, she said — the zero-rate era that followed the 2008 crisis is not coming back
She would not add to Treasuries even after this week's yield pullback, and said safer sovereign markets like Singapore and Norway issue too little debt to buy
She still wants the Fed raising rates, even stripping out the weak September payroll number, because she sees inflation as sticky
1. Too Much Of A Good Thing
Asked what bind central banks are in, Patterson said most of the pressure hitting the Fed and its peers right now is a supply shock, not a demand one, and that policy has no tool for it.
Central banks can set rates, but they cannot create oil or chips
She framed the AI buildout itself as the "too much" problem, citing a Brookings estimate for capital spending tied to it.
"That's an incredible, incredible statistic." — Rebecca Patterson
The spending is competing directly with the labor market and the Treasury market
"And when I say sucks away, I mean, you don't have enough construction workers because they're all building data centers. You have pressure higher on Treasury yields because you are now competing with all that AI debt." — Rebecca Patterson
