Market Talk with George Noble · Nov 8, 2026 · 1h 13m · 61m saved
With Michael Howell, Managing Director of CrossBorder Capital · Jack Gamble, engineer who worked in nuclear power for 15 years
Global liquidity, the pool of money and credit available to markets, peaked in late 2025 and has fallen through 2026. Michael Howell, managing director of CrossBorder Capital, told Market Talk with George Noble that the decline is not the work of central banks, which have refused to tighten.
Most investors blame falling liquidity on tight policy. Michael says the real economy is simply strong enough to soak up the money, leaving less for financial markets.
"Liquidity is tightening mainly because the real economies are so strong, and they're just absorbing liquidity... all money that's anywhere must be somewhere. So if it's in the real economy, it's not in the financial markets." — Michael Howell
Michael's firm tracks liquidity as a signal that leads markets by six to nine months. He was joined by Jack Gamble, an engineer who has followed the credit stress at AI cloud providers and the political fight over data centers.
The full episode is covered here so you can skip it. 73 minutes of audio, 12 minutes of reading.
Here are the 14 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
No election outcome fixes the funding problem for AI and data centers, George Noble says
Global liquidity peaked in late 2025 because the real economy is absorbing it, not because central banks tightened
Michael Howell sees $10,000 gold within 5 years, driven by Chinese money-printing
The Treasury is running "yield volatility control," not yield-curve control
CoreWeave's $19B of undrawn credit is tied to project milestones Jack Gamble expects it to miss
All but one of 45 or 46 local data-center bans passed in the midterms
Jack, a 15-year nuclear veteran, says Fermi's four reactors might be done by 2040 if the project does not bankrupt the company
1. No Election Fixes Liquidity
George Noble, who hosts the show, opened by saying the midterm elections could not change the problem facing the AI buildout.
George Noble says neither side's win could solve the funding squeeze on AI and data centers
"No election, regardless of the outcome, is going to solve the funding problems for the AI and the data centers. No election outcome is going to improve the liquidity picture." — George Noble
The post-election bounce he expected lasted "all of one session" before a sharp selloff. Investors are giving up their gains for 2026 and are unlikely to commit fresh money to defend prices.
"Folks are rapidly giving up their year, their performance, and therefore I think it's unlikely that folks are going to want to commit a lot more risk to defend the market. So I think the market's in a very bad place. People are on their back foot." — George Noble
