This article simplifies a subject economists have turned into a maze. Inflation is not just a number on a chart. It is a mechanism of power that decides who pays when governments over promise and overspend. We walk through Mervyn King’s warning, John Cochrane’s fiscal theory, and the rival stories told by Stephen Miran, Kevin Warsh and Christopher Waller.
For eighty years Washington could print claims on the rest of the world and call it money. That privilege is no longer absolute. By turning reserves and payment pipes into weapons, the United States has forced other states to think like risk managers. The result is not a sudden dollar collapse, but a slow tightening of the funding noose around Washington’s own budget
Martin Wolf now concedes that Britain is stuck in a low productivity, high inequality trap that threatens democracy itself. Yet when the argument reaches the point where rentiers must actually be confronted and capital controlled, he retreats into the language of caution. This long read maps the gap between his diagnosis and the regime he still cannot bring himself to break.
From a BRICS vantage point, the real energy weapon was never just Russian gas or Chinese rare earths. It was Washington’s grip on sanctions, shipping, finance and the dollar system, used for decades against Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and Russia. With U.S. warships off Caracas and new threats over oil and airspace, Venezuela has become the live test of a split world energy order.
Central banks are not buying gold because the Western system that issues their reserves now freezes and seizes them. From Russian assets to Venezuelan gold, the message to the global South is simple. Your savings in New York or London are hostages, not reserves. The world is quietly building an escape route.
Trump’s second term economy looks respectable on paper. Growth is positive, unemployment is low and an artificial intelligence boom is lifting Wall Street. Yet prices remain far above their pre pandemic level and Liberation Day tariffs have acted as a giant, hidden tax on everyday goods. Voters now blame Trump personally for a cost of living crisis he promised to end, and they are punishing him at the ballot box.
Britain no longer lives from factories; it lives from contracts, custody and trust in London. That trust is now a sanctions weapon. From Venezuelan gold to Russian reserves and Arctic gas shipping, the United Kingdom is using its courts and insurers to punish enemies. Each strike hurts Moscow. It also teaches the rest of the world how to move money and ships without London.
Rachel Reeves’s first Budget does not end Britain’s time as a polite tax haven, but it finally leans against the tide. Threshold freezes still squeeze workers, yet high value property and investment income are asked to pay more, and the two child limit is scrapped. For a country built around offshore money and domestic austerity, that is a small but real turn.
Artificial intelligence companies talk about safety and innovation, but the real fight is elsewhere. It is over who owns the training data that feeds their models, who gets paid for it and who is quietly turned into free raw material. As Britain dithers over copyright rules, private contracts and foreign courts are deciding that settlement without the country at the table.
The machines aren’t waiting. They’re already here. Across offices, hospitals, studios, and courtrooms, artificial intelligence is seeping into the daily routines of professionals who once thought their roles were untouchable. What matters now is...
LONDON — Britain’s long-term borrowing costs have surged to their highest level since 1998, rattling the Treasury and intensifying the pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of her first full Budget. The yield on...
BEIJING — China is advancing a distinctly state-led strategy for artificial intelligence, prioritizing infrastructure, regulation and targeted applications over the free-market sprint toward artificial general intelligence favored in the United States. While American companies...
By Jaffa Levy August 30, 2025 Europe finds itself at a crossroads. As the war in Ukraine grinds on into its fourth year, Western capitals are under pressure to sustain the flow of weapons...
By Jaffa Levy The silence of Britain’s leaders in the face of mounting warnings has become louder than any denial. There has been no clear rebuttal from the Prime Minister, no assertive statement from...
By Esther Cohen Homes were reclassified as assets. Scarcity was cultivated. Empty houses multiplied while permissions went unbuilt. Private equity moved in. The housing system no longer delivers stability but extraction, driving poverty and...
by Jaffa We are so shocked. The ordinary man is so shocked that Russia has won the war and nothing can be done, N. Perhaps he would not be shocked if the media had...