Huge Financial News Including... Will Data Center Moratoriums = Recession? – Top 3 Takeaways – October 15th, 2026

Takeaway #1: A huge financial day

Wednesday was a particularly big news day for financial things. We’re into the start of the current corporate earnings season with big earnings reports from many of the biggest banks and financial companies in the world. There was news about the inflation rate. The Consumer Price Index rose by 3.7% most recently (literally) driven by for gasoline (the CORE inflation rate excluding food and energy prices was 2.6%). The Federal Reserve was already expected to raise interest rates again – this report would seemingly make that eventuality all but a guarantee. It’s not a matter of if but when. Financial markets sold off yesterday on the news with 93% chance of an increase by the Fed’s December meeting (with twice as many investors now believing that the Fed may raise interest rates again this month compared to the prior day). Not ideal. There was news about Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment for the upcoming year – it'll be 3.6%...so it almost makes up for the impact of inflation... Then there was the news that most big banks were definitively shown to have discriminated against conservative groups for at least five years. That was the result of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency having completed their investigation into alleged debanking practices of conservatives during the Biden administration. As was found by the federal government - irrefutable evidence that the nation’s largest banks have denied, debanked and discriminated against customers and lawful businesses. The report found that JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Bank, Capital One, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and BMO Bank – all discriminated against prolife religious groups, conservative individuals, businesses and organizations between 2020 and September of last year. What’s worse is the now indicted leftist interest group, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s recommendations were commonly found to be used as justification by these big banks. It raises the question about who you’re choosing to bank with. Anyway, those are all significant stories with important implications, but my top takeaway today. Is a quote yesterday from the world’s largest asset manager – Blackrock's CEO Larry Fink. Amid the continued backlash driven in part by a Chinese funded anti-AI propaganda campaign across the country (as China seeks to defeat the U.S. in AI)... Fink’s quote that struck me more than anything yesterday was that...

Takeaway #2: If we have a data center moratorium, we will be in a recession.

That’s particularly instructive as the Palm Beach County commission has already joined the lemmings unanimously approving an AI data center moratorium, and this week Martin County became the most recent county, to unanimously advance a data center moratorium with a final vote scheduled for October 27th. In early September I was hopeful that President Trump’s willingness to lead on this issue, in no uncertain terms, might mark a turning point with on the issue at least within more conservative jurisdictions when he said this: The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening! But instead, what we’re seeing is more of the same. Our county commissions are failing to make the right decisions on the biggest issue(s) of the day. As I mentioned in my takeaways on August 28th... What's clear based upon the ignorance that's been on display during the entirety of the AI debate is that there are no real leaders on the Palm Beach County Commission - just varying degrees of ignorant politically expedient politicians. Their decision to vote forward an artificial one-year moratorium on AI, is the technology equivalent of COVID lockdowns for the next year. The decision to kill Project Tango, which btw, the backers are currently trying to appeal, adjusted for inflation over the next decade killed an estimated $5.15 billion in tax revenue to the county, $2.15 billion in construction investment, 2,300 jobs that would have paid the employees $1.3 billion - meaning there's also $1.3 billion in lost local wages...and again that was just Project Tango – let alone the county now putting up the "We're Closed" sign when it comes to the age of AI. All of that denied opportunity is the ‘Golden Goose’ President Trump spoke of ... but what’s also especially important is not just the lost economic opportunity with data centers, but also what he believes there will be with the absence of it. A recession. So, these county commissions aren’t just denying their communities the immense revenue and economic opportunities – they're also placing them at risk for a recession – if Larry Fink is right (and he has made an incredible career out of being right about these things). So, in essence, a vote against AI is...

Takeaway #3: A vote for a recession

And yesterday I did some digging on where our country and our state stands on the issue of AI infrastructure, and what I found was profound. A state that’s been known for being free and friendly for business activity – dynamics that have been vital to Florida’s economic success over the past decade...no longer appears to be. To be clear, the state’s policy still sets our state up for success. The state legislature and Governor DeSantis did the responsible thing when they established the data center law that prevented data centers from causing harm to local communities. However, it’s what’s happening within local communities that’s become alarming. 29 local governments have already put data center moratoriums into place, with 16 more that are currently under consideration. What does all of this add to? Florida currently is the 9th most restrictive state in the AI-age in the country. Could you imagine where Florida’s economy would have been and currently would be if our state ranked 41st for business friendliness? That would have put us on par with Illinois – which has been one of the top states people have been fleeing from to come to Florida over the past decade. So, every vote to deny and delay data centers across this state isn’t just a vote to deny and delay (at a minimum) enormous economic opportunity, aka the ‘Golden Goose’, it’s also a vote for a recession. That’s a heck of a thing for local governments to effectively be voting for locally.

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