The next financial crisis

A note from the editor

Yohann Koshy

Exotic monstrosities

Ten years ago I took an entry-level economics class at school. It was September 2008. Lehman Brothers had just filed for bankruptcy. ‘It’s certainly an interesting time to be studying economics!’ the teacher said. It was – but you wouldn’t have known from the syllabus. There was nothing about the financial system. There were, however, plenty of elegant abstractions, showing the intersection of supply and demand in a timeless, spaceless universe.

This blind spot for finance, I discovered researching this issue, extends to the economics profession generally. More worryingly, the complexity of the financial system eclipses even its practitioners. Fabrice Tourre, the only Wall Street trader convicted of anything in relation to the global financial crisis, sent off an email to his girlfriend in 2007 when he knew something was wrong: ‘[I’m] standing in the middle of all these complex, highly levered, exotic trades [I’ve] created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstruosities [sic]!!!’

Fortunately, there is a growing constituency of progressive, unorthodox economists who do understand these exotic monstrosities. And when I reached out to them to speculate about possible candidates for the next financial crisis, they were all too ready to contribute: the Eurozone, trade wars, shadow banking, central banks… At least next time we won’t be surprised when it happens.

A positive prospect on the horizon is the redesigned and relaunched New Internationalist. From September 2018 we will become a bimonthly publication, giving us more space to go in-depth, with long-form features, more visual treatments and, as always, a rigorous sense of inquiry into the political, economic and social issues of our day and our world.

Yohann Koshy for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

When the world almost ended

It’s 10 years since the global financial system almost sent the world into a great depression. Yohann Koshy takes stock of what went wrong and where we are now.

Buy this magazine



Features

The carbon bubble

Yohann Koshy looks at the impending catastrophe linking the stock market to climate change.

Read this article

The next financial crisis

Clueless central banks? A trade war? Southern debt? Leading economists on where the next crisis might come from...

Buy this magazine

Workers labouring on a suspension bridge across the Yangtze River in May 2018.Photo: AFP/Getty Images

China: a post-neoliberal order?

If the global financial crisis symbolized the decline of the West, it also signalled that the future belongs to China – a superpower that ‘understands’ the developing world better than the US, IMF or World Bank, according to Martin Jacques.

Read this article

War of words

War of words

With president Trump, Zhou Xiaochuan, a US official, and Christine Lagarde.

Buy this magazine

Julius sits on the porch of his house in Trenton, New Jersey, looking north at Ewing Township where foreclosure rates are drastically lower.Photo: Jack Crosbie

Home sweet home

Ten years ago the world focused on the US foreclosure crisis as thousands lost their homes in dodgy mortgage deals. Today, the crisis is still a reality for many. Jack Crosbie reports.

Read this article

'Mindbusters' reads the banner, with Orban pictured in the middle: young Hungarians take a tongue in cheek stand against the propaganda apparatus.Photo: Lorraine Mallinder

Inside the post-truth laboratory

Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s autocratic hard man, is riding high, with the help of young propaganda-mongers. Lorraine Mallinder investigates a media takeover.

Buy this magazine

Close up for comfort: two patients at the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences in New Delhi. Often abandoned by their families, many of the women on the ward stay on even after recovery.Photo: Cheena Kapoor

The interveners

Trusted in the communities they serve, India’s women health activists are making a difference in getting help for people stigmatized for mental health problems. Yet, as Sophie Cousins reports, the challenge remains vast.

Buy this magazine

Photos: Gisella Ligias

Against their will

Lea Surugue and Gisella Ligios report from the Czech Republic where Roma women who were forcibly sterilized are demanding the authorities take responsibility.

Buy this magazine


Opinion

Photo: Michael Matthews / Alamy Stock Photo

How to make housing a human right

In cities such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, working people have been all but priced out, pushed into ever more distant fringes and suburbs. Mark Engler explores solutions.

Read this article

Photo of the cast for The Untouchables, 1956.Photo: Public Domain

Is the ‘Data Mafia’ here to stay?

From the moment you were born, The Man With The Data knew you better than you knew yourself. Omar Hamdi explains.

Buy this magazine


Agenda

A protester stands defiantly at the fence dividing Gaza from Israel in May 2018.Photo: Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto via Getty

‘We can’t be silent’

Palestinians in Gaza have been putting their lives on the line to challenge Israel’s decade long siege of the Strip.

Buy this magazine

Garden dreaming...

Garden dreaming...

Dating apps are disrupting traditional customs in Nepal’s capital.

Buy this magazine

Hands off

Hands off

Anti-groping badges are becoming a popular tool in Japanese women’s fight against sexual harassment or chikan.

Buy this magazine

Introducing... Carlos Alvarado Quesada

The election on 1 April gave Carlos Alvarado Quesada’s National Action Party (PAN) more than 60 per cent of the vote and makes him one of the under-40 club of victors in presidential elections (France, New Zealand and Iceland).

Buy this magazine

Nightlife vs Nazis

Nightlife vs Nazis

Tbilisi’s clubbing scene is in the crosshairs of a war on culture led by reactionary elements in Georgia, opposed to its progressive ethos.

Buy this magazine

Civil society protests against fracking in Cheshire, 2016. Is a new wave of resistance coming?Photo: Dave Ellison / Alamy

Fracking haunts sceptred isle

Resistance is rising in the UK as the company behind the controversial energy-extraction process known as fracking gears up for a return to action.

Buy this magazine

British aiding repression

British aiding repression

A secretive British government aid-fund has generated renewed controversy after a rights group revealed that it has been used to train people involved in torture and execution.

Buy this magazine

And f**k off they did

And f**k off they did

In May 2018, a group of 15 mostly Peruvian workers decided enough was enough...

Buy this magazine

Greener, richer

Greener, richer

New research suggests that low-carbon infrastructure is not only ethical, it also yields greater economic returns.

Buy this magazine

Reasons to be cheerful

Reasons to be cheerful

Happy families; Radio, live transmission; Eat your greens.

Buy this magazine


Regulars

Letters

Praise, blame and all points in between? Your feedback published in the June 2018 magazine.

Read this article

Illustration: Sarah John

Our time will return

The lines painted on his skin lead to the heartlands of identity, discovers Dan Baron Cohen.

Buy this magazine

Open Window - Repression

Open Window - Repression

Oğuz Demir from Turkey with ‘Repression/Resistance’.

Buy this magazine

Clockwise from top left: Students at the University of Botswana in the capital, Gaborone; Nthompe Rosinah Mothata selling her snacks in Gaborone’s bus station; looking out over the main pit of the Jwaneng mine in the Kalahari – the richest diamond mine in the world; and the Three Dikgosi (Chiefs) Monument depicting the leaders of the Bangwato, Bakwena and Bangwaketse ethnic groups – a set of bronze figures cast by a North Korean company and located in Gaborone’s Central Business District.All photos by Marc Shoul / Panos Pictures.

Country Profile: Botswana

Wame Molefhe profiles Botswana, where prosperity has morphed into corruption and inequality. But will the country’s future see it regain the sparkle its diamonds offer to the rich?

Buy this magazine

Isaias Afwerki

Worldbeater: Isaias Afwerki

We put the track record of Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea – and a liberation fighter turned ruthless dictator – under the spotlight.

Buy this magazine

Environmental campaigner Claire Nouvian.Photo: Courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize

Making Waves

The untiring campaigner and guardian of the deep, Claire Nouvian, speaks with Veronique Mistiaen about the transformative experience that led to her choosing her path – on to eventual victory.

Buy this magazine

Southern Exposure: Hadeer Omar

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

Buy this magazine

Amadou & Mariam

And finally...

Mali’s blind musical duo speak to Graeme Green about the ‘refugee crisis’ and why extremist efforts to stop the music will ultimately fail.

Buy this magazine


Film, Book & Music Reviews

Mixed Media: Film

Mixed Media: Film

Highlights from Hot Docs, the major documentary film festival held annually in Toronto, Canada.

Buy this magazine

Mixed Media: Books

Mixed Media: Books

The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj; The Old Slave and the Mastiff by Patrick Chamoiseau; The Neighborhood by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Buy this magazine

Mixed Media: Music

Mixed Media: Music

Bush Lady by Alanis Obomsawin; Under Frustration, Vol 1 by Arabstazy.

Read this article


Back