Coffer stop: AI may shrink tax base
Summary
This episode explores the fiscal challenges of the AI boom, with senior economics writer Callum Williams explaining how tax systems may fail to capture new value as labor income declines. The show also features a surprising solution to urban heat: highly reflective paint that uses thermodynamics to cool buildings and vehicles without energy. Finally, obituaries editor Anne Roe remembers Stanislas Hoin, a French reservist who documented the brutal torture of Algerian prisoners during the colonial war.
Topics discussed
Sponsor: Capital One banking benefits
Sponsor: London Business School MBA
Introduction and episode overview
Rising AI profits and falling US tax revenue
How AI investment write-offs affect corporate taxes
The risk to labor-based tax bases from AI
Proposals for direct AI taxes like compute levies
The viability and history of wealth taxes
Taxing corporate excess profits and capital gains
Consumption taxes and their progressive potential
Political feasibility of tax system reform
Promo: The Economist Insider video series
Sponsor: Vantage Score credit reporting
Sponsor: London Business School MBA
The energy cost of cooling buildings globally
Case study: White roofs on London buses
UCL research on high-reflectivity paint
Material science: Aerogel vs mirror-like coatings
Thermodynamics and scalability of reflective paint
Conclusion on sustainable cooling solutions
Stanislas Hoin's testimony on Algerian torture
Details of French military atrocities
Historical context of the Algerian War
Hoin's background and opposition to colonialism
Legacy of Hoin's photographs and activism
Preview: The point of human memory
British Podcast Awards and team credits
Sponsor: Capital One banking benefits
Sponsor: London Business School MBA
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