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Zeitgeist — a spike by Chris Gathercole
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  2. Patrick Boyle — Patrick Boyle On Finance/

Why Wall Street is Ignoring Big Tech's Debt

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  • Patrick Boyle refutes the “Enron” comparison for the estimated $1.65 trillion in “hidden,” off-balance-sheet debt of the five biggest US tech companies, asserting this debt is disclosed in footnotes, adheres to accounting rules, and is not concealed through fraud.
  • He poses a more critical question: if aggressive accounting practices (like adjusted earnings, leases, and stock-based compensation) are openly disclosed, do they actually fool anyone, drawing on research from experts such as Aswath Damodaran, Richard Sloan, and Robert Bloomfield.
  • The debt isn’t truly “hidden” but rather filed in tedious places most people don’t read; the real risk in the current AI boom likely isn’t the borrowing, but the “enormous revenue” it’s all assuming will materialize.