World Economy

The latest outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) threatens poor miners, their families and health workers. Its consequences could spread far beyond DRC borders. There have been 40 outbreaks since […]

For millions of workers, there are bitter memories of the depths of the cost-of-living crisis. For many, it never ended. And so projections for a new round of inflation coming down the track will be […]

At the beginning of this year, the world economy seemed to develop in a promising direction, according to some analysists. The IMF revised its forecast from October 2025 upwards and cited a “resilient growth”. However, […]

The escalating trade conflict between the United States and China is not simply a dispute between politicians or the result of misguided policies from the White House. It reflects deep strains inside global capitalism itself. […]

On Friday, the 9th January 2026 a majority of representatives of the EU-countries finally agreed to a treaty with Mercosur, the Southern Common Market, a South American economic bloc. It seems that 25 years after […]

“As things stand, there are enough bubbles that are set to burst within a year. When they do burst they will cause significant economic disruption. The fallout won’t lead to a 1929-style crisis, and it […]

Originally published in Socialism Today No. 286, magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) Chinese company DeepSeek launched its generative AI ‘r1 model’ in January. Run and primarily funded by Liang Wenfeng, a […]

James Carville, the political advisor who coined the phrase ‘it’s the economy stupid’ as a campaigning slogan for Democrat Bill Clinton to win the 1992 presidential election, was once asked what he’d like to be […]

Trump’s 2nd April “Liberation Day” speech was a turning point, as it launched an open offensive to break capitalist globalisation in its current form. This was not, as Trump falsely claims, in the interests of US […]

Trump is back in the White House. Much of the world is gripped by fear about what his second term will mean, as are millions in America – particularly migrants, LGBTQ+ people, and others likely […]

Originally published in Socialism Today, magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales). This year is the thirtieth birthday of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It is also the year China opened a WTO […]

Tech company Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, reported that it will pay $1.25 billion in dividends to its shareholders every quarter. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has about 350 million shares, will get […]

On 27 October, 130 engineers at Tesla workshops in Sweden began strike action against the car giant. They have been demanding Tesla recognises their union IF Metall and negotiates a collective bargaining agreement. Striking workers […]

Minor infections often turned lethal until the mid-twentieth century. Now this threat could return, as micro-organisms become more resistant to antibiotics, antifungals, antiparasites and other antimicrobial compounds. “All of modern medicine is upheld by our […]

The extremely right-wing Modi-led BJP government has completed nine years in power, with elections scheduled next year. At this juncture, when we draw political perspectives, we need to assess the processes that have been unfolding […]

“We understand better now how little we understand about inflation,”[i] commented Jerome Powell, Chair of the US Federal Reserve (the Fed), when inflation reached its highest level since the late 1970s in 2022. At the […]

The new lease of life that world capitalism experienced after the collapse of the Stalinist states of Russia and Eastern Europe from the late 1980s has definitively run its course. Whatever the immediate perspectives are […]

As the cost-of-living crisis continues in Britain – with 30-year high inflation and the effects of over ten years of austerity that have decimated our public services – a growing number of people are beginning […]

‘Silent Coup – how corporations overthrew democracy’ is a devastating critique of the power and control wielded by major conglomerates and the secretive institutions and global legal systems they have built up over decades. They […]

Trade Unions’ Federation Must Provide Platform for United Actions against IMF’s Dictated Attacks and High Cost of Living. Ghana is in a serious debt crisis. The country defaulted on its external debts in December 2022 […]

The ongoing tensions between the United States and China have continued to escalate as the global economic crisis deepens. While the US economy is still the most powerful in the world, its dominance is being […]

Bold socialist policies more urgent than ever! The global and multi-faceted crisis of capitalism has entered a new phase with the turmoil in the financial markets and the collapse of banks in the US and […]

Many bourgeois economists have tended to put a gloss on the deep systemic crisis facing world capitalism. They have often seized upon this or that marginal piece of “good” news to empirically conclude that this […]

In 2022, the world’s population hit the landmark figure of eight billion. How can the world support this growing number of people? Is overpopulation a challenge to be overcome, or does the problem lie elsewhere? […]

The following document was presented to and agreed by the International Executive Committee of the CWI, which held a meeting from 23-27 January 2023. Introduction. Not Like Other Crises. Tsunami of a Debt Crises. Amazon […]

“Liz Truss resigns after failed budget and market turmoil”; “more than 40% of mortgages withdrawn as market reels after mini-budget”; “Sunak says higher taxes and spending cuts needed to satisfy markets”. For a period of […]

Nobody should go hungry. But in Britain, in 2022, well over two million people rely on food banks and food-sharing apps like ‘Olio’ to feed themselves and their families. The current economic crisis is seeing […]

We live in a world where historically undreamt-of wealth exists, where technology has been developed in a way that was only envisaged in science fiction, where enough food, shelter and the basics of life could […]

On 9 April 1992, the Conservative Party won a general election with a record-breaking 14 million votes. On 2 May 1997, it lost the next general election, with its standing shattered by the events that […]

With the rise of protest movements around climate change in recent years, an increasing spotlight has been shone on the question of food production and distribution. On one hand, global food production is estimated to […]

Across the United States, many Americans are increasingly concerned about affordable housing availability within their local communities. According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2021, roughly 50 percent of Americans have said that affordable […]

More food is being produced than ever before, yet world hunger has been rising since 2015 and is now back to its 2005 level of 811 million malnourished people. Nobody should go hungry. But capitalism […]

Cryptocurrencies have been hailed as innovative and ground-breaking assets that can have a transformative effect on the world economy. In the second article in our series ‘busting economic myths’, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) […]

As we head towards double-digit inflation, the Tory government in Britain is trying to offload blame for the huge price rises in fuel and gas by pointing to the price shock that has taken place […]

“We were already having problems with food prices… What countries are doing now is exacerbating that, and the war is putting us in a situation where we could easily fall into a food crisis,” said […]

The ‘Inequality Kills’ report by Oxfam shines a light on the horrific poverty conditions experienced by billions around the world. It has been further exacerbated during the Covid pandemic – 99% of the world’s population […]

The recent acute shortages of energy, goods, and labour in some sectors in the UK stem in large part from UK-specific capitalist failings. But the volatile world situation is part of the background to those […]

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with fears of rising unemployment as the furlough scheme is wound up, and the full extent of the economic scarring from the pandemic is revealed, there are also […]

Across the globe, at least 2.4 million people have now died from contracting Covid-19. Livelihoods have been wrecked and economies have crashed, with the world economy shrinking by over 4% and the UK suffering a […]

For over a year, the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe, causing over two million deaths and unleashing enormous economic and social crises. 2021 has ushered in new lockdowns in the UK, Germany […]

Around £320 billion is lost annually to corporate tax abuse and private tax evasion, the equivalent of nearly 34 million nurses’ salaries, according to the Tax Justice Network. Poorer countries are most affected, with tax […]

A decade ago, following the worldwide financial crash, a Financial Times editorial congratulated capitalism on a bit of luck that “the left” was “missing in action in what should have been its finest hour. In […]

The intimate connections between organised crime, high finance, and the capitalist state have been exposed. Documents leaked from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) detail over $2 trillion of suspect transactions over two decades. […]

Few could have imagined when the Tories won the 2019 general election in Britain that five months later they would be carrying through measures of state intervention beyond the scale even of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour […]

Statement from International Secretariat of the CWI 23 March 2020 The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has plunged world capitalism and society into an entirely new era of turmoil and upheaval. In country after country, […]

As global markets reel in the face of the developing coronavirus pandemic, it is difficult to see how these events will not be the trigger for a new world capitalist economic downturn, with all the […]

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, won the general election, last December, by trying to pose as a ‘man of the people’. Despite the rhetoric the first budget of his premiership showed clearly that, like all […]

The biggest one-day fall in stock markets since the financial crisis; an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia; and the fastest drop in the cost of oil for 30 years. The impact of […]

To meet an ever-growing questioning of capitalism since the crisis of 2007-08, the system’s defenders look to theoretically justify its continued rule. The latest effort is by the renowned former World Bank economist, Branko Milanović, […]

The deep crises in the world economy and political establishments are not only reflected in attempts to resurrect Keynesian-style policies. Other capitalist economists are proposing that an even harsher neoliberal model should be applied – […]

Brutal neoliberal policies and austerity has created growing mass anger. The growth in Trump-style populism is one consequence of this, as is an increased interest in ‘New Deal’ style reforms. A recent book contrasts different […]

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that under the rarely invoked International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and seventy of its affiliated companies are set to be added to the […]

2018 marked ten years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank which plunged the world economy into the deepest economic recession since the 1930s. The financial virus spread quickly, causing production and trade to seize […]

The socialist answer to capitalist crisis

All is not well with capitalism. Economic jitters parallel political volatility. Stock market highs in December turned to mass share sell-offs in February. Colossal personal and governmental debt stalks the system, limiting the capitalists’ room […]

The IMF in its latest prognosis praises what it sees as a stable growth of the world economy. Yes, there are some risks the IMF says, not least the political ones. But the crisis has […]

The Daily Mail reacted with predictable hysteria when, in May 2017, John McDonnell stated: “You can’t understand the capitalist system without reading Marx’s Das Kapital.” When asked to immediately condemn his shadow chancellor, Labour leader […]

Bosses strive to offload cost of crisis on working class – a struggle for system change is needed

Steel plant to close after a century of production, raw material prices collapsing, China’s economy slowing, the ongoing euro crisis…

The sudden plunge of oil and gas prices has underlined the volatility in the world capitalist economy

In the first week of March share prices surged on the New York Stock Exchange followed by other major exchanges. Does this signify a revival of the global capitalist economy?

The problems of the eurozone, rooted in the clash of national interests and the rivalries of capitalist leaders, remain as intractable as ever.

Billions around the world suffer from either malnourishment or obesity.

Global capitalism is mired in depression. A Keynesian tract for our times by Paul Krugman proposes a way out

After a month of negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty at the United Nations in New York, the discussions came to an ignominious end last Friday when, first the United States and then Russia and […]

Take the wealth off the 1%!

Capitalist crisis and workers’ mass struggles take global dimensions

Capitalist leaders are in disarray as they strive and fail to get to grips with the eurozone crisis and its threat to the global economy

The European economies are in the throes of an austerity-induced recession, which is likely to be protracted.

On the brink of a new downturn

Fight for socialism

Rich hoard wealth – Fight for a socialist future!

Study finds 1% of corporations control world economy

Eurozone threatened by sovereign debt and banking crisis and compounded by near-zero growth

Capitalist strategists are filled with gloom at the prospect of a new economic downturn.

Trying to control an anarchic and blind system, none of the measures taken stem the downward spiral

The package does little or nothing to reduce the unsustainable debt mountain or stimulate economic growth

The economy and inter-imperialist relations

The latest rich list produced by the Forbes magazine shows that the collective wealth of the world’s 1,210 billionaires has reached a new record high of $4.5 trillion – up nearly $1 trillion on last […]

THE FINANCIAL speculators and hedge funds that so spectacularly contributed to the financial crisis resulting in the ’Great Recession’ have now turned their attention to the international food market with devastating consequences.

‘Plan B’ – Will it work?

In the "Joe Show", a US radio talk, CWI members explain that capitalism has failded and it’s time for socialism to come to rescue.

Clashes escalate crisis

In the past few weeks there’s been a noticeable shift in tone in the business pages and journals. Their confidence in the so-called “recovery” has faded, and has been replaced by anxiety.

Wages have been slashed, unemployment has exploded and our public services have been cut savagely as the economic crisis developed in Ireland. All of this is the result of the policies of the right-wing government […]

This week, the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) is holding its annual Summer School, in Belgium.

The G20 meeting in Toronto of the leaders of the main capitalist governments of the world demonstrated a complete incapacity to solve the huge problems that confront us, particularly those hardest-hit – the poor and […]

Another way for the banks and finance institutions to earn a quick buck.

2010 – Savage social cuts, workers’ resistance and growth of socialist ideas

Political, social and environmental consequences and tasks of the workers’ movement

Workers start the fight-back

Capitalist failure, then and now!

Workers’ struggles point way forward – Fight for a socialist future

Capitalist bailouts or socialist nationalisation?

Capitalism kills – concludes study of privatisation era

Workers’ struggles mount

Global economic downturn gaining momentum

Build socialist alternative

Statement by Nouriel Roubini

Is the US economy also heading for a ‘lost decade’?

Global Capitalism in Crisis

Video interview with Peter Taaffe, General Secretary of the Socialist Party, cwi in England and Wales

End workers’ misery through genuine nationalisation and democratic socialist planning

Capitalist finance system nears meltdown

Karl Marx was right

Reviews of ‘The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us Our Future’ by Dan Atkinson & Larry Elliot

Price of petroleum is set in casinos of finance capitalism

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, By Charles R Morris

Workers and Poor Masses Should Struggle for Socialist Alternative

Around the world, strikes, demonstrations and protests have erupted as millions upon millions of workers, peasants and poor face the horror of rapidly rising food prices.

A review of the latest book by economist and commentator Paul Krugman, ‘Conscience of a Liberal’

A new stage of the crisis

Opportunities for socialists will develop in the next period.

US sliding into recession

Global capitalism faces its worst crisis since 1945.

Build a socialist alternative

The global capitalist economy has been hit by a major credit crunch.

Over the last week, billions of pounds have been wiped off share values worldwide as stock markets plunged.

Financial bubbles and the overaccumulation of capital

Can poor loans system end poverty and hunger?

Capitalism creates grotesque inequalities

Capitalism’s ruthless struggle for oil and gas

Was this merely a timely ‘correction’ of speculative bubbles or a preliminary tremor marking the onset of a deeper crisis?

The world economy today is hooked on fossil fuels: oil, gas and coal.

One measure of the surge in speculative activity is the sharp rise in foreign exchange (FX) dealing. In September 2004 the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published its sixth triennial survey of foreign exchange and […]

Seventy-three percent of those who were asked in a national opinion poll were in favour of increasing the top rate of income tax on incomes of greater than £100,000 from 40p in the pound to […]

The price of oil has surged during 2004, after a period of relatively low prices.

The sluggish world economy is being dragged along by two coupled locomotives, with US capitalism at the head of the train and with China as a key auxiliary.

A ’black gold’ rush is in full swing.

The recovery in the world economy continues to assume an anaemic character.

Eurozone leaders attending the recent G7 summit of finance ministers from the richest capitalist nations let out a howl of impotent anguish. The statement issued after their meeting (7/8 February) at Boca Raton, Florida, deplored […]

THE BOOMS of the 1980s and 1990s were both driven by frenzied international financial speculation. They have left deep problems for capitalism, and now form a massive barrier to a new, sustained economic upswing in […]

DUBLIN HAS the odious task of hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 19 – 20 October. The WEF, which is a representative "think tank" for the top thousand multinational corporations in the world, plans […]

FINANCE MINISTERS from the seven largest economies in the world met recently to debate how to revive the sick world economy. However, there was little agreement on how to revive the patient.

"The credit system appears as the main lever of overproduction and over speculation in commerce solely because the process of reproduction, which is elastic in its nature, is here forced to its extreme limits.

THE US, the most powerful economy in the world, responsible for a third of world output, is reeling with shock. This time there are no foreign terrorists who can be held responsible for disaster striking. […]

Summer is usually a period when "not much happens", at least in Europe. But this Summer is like the calm before the storm. The mass demonstration in Genoa and the last general strike in Argentina […]

This is an update on the world economy, a brief supplement to the CWI statement "Crisis of global capitalism", dated February 1998.

"Consider the big picture: an east Asia of toppling currencies and bank insolvency: rising unemployment in Latin America’s largest economy (Brazil) and falling real wages throughout the region: stagnation and unemployment in Europe: a rapidly […]