June 17, 2026
Markets, memes, and meltdown vibes
The (real) dead economy theory
Is the economy fake now? Readers clash over Musk, AI and the great money delusion
TLDR: Doctorow argues today’s economy rewards hype over usefulness, using Musk, crypto, and artificial intelligence as proof. Readers instantly split into two camps: one says he’s exposing a giant money illusion, the other says he’s missing a real technology shift that’s already changing work.
Cory Doctorow’s latest broadside, “The (real) dead economy theory”, argues that today’s market is running on vibes, hype, and the hope that some other sucker pays more later. His big example is Elon Musk: Doctorow says Musk’s wealth has exploded since 2020 even as his big post-2020 projects — from Twitter/X to robotaxis and the Cybertruck — have looked more like chaos than slam dunks. He folds crypto and artificial intelligence into the same story: eye-popping valuations, questionable usefulness, and institutions acting like the party can never end.
But wow, the comments came in swinging. The hottest fight was over Doctorow calling AI “the world’s money-losingest technology.” One camp basically yelled, “Out of touch!” arguing that artificial intelligence is already helping with everyday work and clearly isn’t just empty hype. Another commenter sounded genuinely baffled that a famous sci-fi writer could look at what they see as a huge technological shift and shrug it off. On the other side, skeptics weren’t exactly defending Doctorow’s style either — one reader brutally compared him to the “complement of Paul Graham,” which is nerd-for-nerd violence.
And then came the dry comedy. One commenter deadpanned that the most interesting sentence is the first one, while another said Doctorow’s big point about assets being worth whatever the next buyer will pay is… basically just finance being finance for centuries. So the real drama isn’t just whether the economy is broken — it’s whether Doctorow is exposing a scam, or just rediscovering capitalism with extra snark.
Key Points
- •The article argues that financial markets are increasingly rewarding speculative narratives over commercial performance.
- •Elon Musk is presented as the article’s central example, with his nominal wealth rising sharply since 2020 despite the article’s claim that his later ventures underperformed.
- •John Quiggin is cited as saying markets and the institutions around them have failed at accurately valuing assets.
- •The article points to Bitcoin, crypto markets, and mainstream bank participation, including Goldman Sachs, as evidence of this broader shift.
- •The article extends the same logic to AI, arguing that large amounts of capital are flowing into it despite heavy losses and at the expense of other areas such as medical research.