At the 10th Fudan Chief Economist Forum held in Shanghai on November 23, Lin Yifu, Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University and Honorary Dean of the National School of Development and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, delivered a keynote speech.
Lin pointed out that in 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 12,000 points, which many economists from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank considered to contain significant bubbles. However, despite the U.S. real economy failing to fully recover, the index has now surged to 46,000 points.
"If 12,000 points already indicated a bubble, then 46,000 points undoubtedly represents an even larger bubble," Lin stated. He noted that substantial capital is being funneled into speculative investments similar to the dot-com bubble before 2000, now rebranded as artificial intelligence (AI).
Lin warned that under these circumstances, a collapse similar to the 2000 dot-com bubble burst is highly probable. He further cautioned that an AI-driven market crash could mirror the 2008 U.S. housing market collapse, potentially triggering financial and economic crises both in the U.S. and globally.