The history of capitalism is littered with bubbles: periods in which over-excited investors pour their money into ultimately worthless ventures – from the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s, to the South Sea and Mississippi frenzies of 1720, to today’s cryptocurrency craze.

For months, the most peculiar situation has been playing out in front of our eyes. On the one hand, global capitalism has clearly entered a prolonged phase of crisis which is expressing itself at all levels. On the other hand, the US stock market is booming. 

China has surged ahead as the world’s premier industrial power. Not a day goes by without news of new technological breakthroughs made in China.

The financial markets are booming like never before. After a few jitters in April as Trump announced his ‘reciprocal tariffs’, the stock markets have hit record after record. This at the same time as workers are being squeezed, government finances are in crisis everywhere, central banks are failing to curb inflation, and unemployment is rearing its ugly head. Something doesn’t add up.

With AI mania driving unprecedented investment in the tech sector, Wall Street punters are racing to get a piece of the gold rush. Speculation on the NASDAQ is rampant, tech stock is being inflated well beyond actual profitability, and a horde of crypto-addicted zombie companies has been unleashed upon the markets. A colossal correction is only a matter of time.

From Wall Street, to the White House, to the West Coast: the USA is currently a picture of chaos and crisis – economically, politically, and socially.

For decades, the world economy has been kept afloat by the life support of credit. For a time, it appeared as if there was no limit to what governments could borrow in order to stabilise the system. Problems were simply kicked down the road, as if there were no tomorrow. In this way, they have fed a monster, which now threatens to devour its master.

What word connects one of Lenin’s most famous theoretical works; supermarket cereals and silicon microchips; and a popular household boardgame, developed in the early 20th-century? The clue is in the title: monopoly.

The global trade war launched by Trump has already resolved into one between the two dominant actors of the world economy, the US and China. The question is posed: who holds the cards? Who will blink first? This question determines the fate of the world economy.

After a week of market mayhem, Trump decided that retreat was the better part of valour and paused his ‘reciprocal’ tariffs. Yet, the trade war is still very much in full swing, and the markets are jittery.

The financial markets are reeling from Trump’s tariff announcement yesterday. The confidence of the collective capitalist class has received a body blow as Trump imposes the highest tariffs since the 19th century.

Trump is about to announce his new tariff package on what he termed ‘liberty day’. Commentators, politicians, diplomats and CEOs are scrambling to work out what is coming. Trump, characteristically, has kept everyone waiting. But although the details aren’t clear, the direction of travel is.

Oxfam’s latest study into contemporary inequality – produced while the ruling class and their minions were rubbing shoulders in Davos – revealed that in 2024, each of the world's 2,640 billionaires increased their wealth by $2 million daily. Meanwhile, since 1990, there has been no improvement in the number of those living on less than $6.85 a day, which still represents 3,600,000,000 people.

The European economy is facing its biggest crisis in a decade. Over the past few months, announcements of layoffs in France and Germany have come thick and fast. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk as companies attempt to cut costs. At the same time, the European Central Bank (ECB) is cutting interest rates and its growth forecast. This reflects the historic crisis of European capitalism, which offers nothing but a future of austerity and misery.

Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi has produced a revealing study on behalf of the EU on the (lack of) ‘European competitiveness’. The former ‘saviour’ of the euro outlines an imperialist offensive as the solution.