The current yen crisis could only be resolved by a sharp rise in Japanese interest rates to encourage investors to hold Japanese financial assets. 

Google is one of the so-called ‘hyperscalers’, the mega tech companies that are ploughing huge of amounts of funds into AI, hoping and expecting it to lead to a sharp rise in profits down the road.

China’s second quarter GDP growth saw a significant deceleration, down to 4.3% year over year from 5.0% in the first quarter and weaker than forecast.

If AI is to succeed for capital, it will only be at the expense of most working people and their families.

As Ruchir Sharma put it back last October, “America is now one big bet on AI“.

Any productivity gains from AI will come from job losses and any new value will swing to the owners of AI capital, not workers.

The gold price against the U.S. dollar is back above $5000 per oz after its recent short sharp contraction last week. 

Amid all the bombast and threats over Greenland in his Davos speech, U.S. President Trump made a series of boasts about the success of the U.S. economy, which was, of course, down to him.

The AI bubble continues.

So the stock market may be booming and the AI hype is still exploding, but the rest of the economy is not so buoyant; and there appear to be cockroaches eating into the clean running of the world of debt. Watch that space.

So AI technology could eventually deliver higher productivity growth if it manages to shed human labour sufficiently.

The U.S. has a record high stock market, unlimited spending on AI capacity by the tech giants, along with sharply increased borrowing to pay for it; but no sign yet of any significant revenues or profits from AI—and alongside that: a slowing rest of the economy, a widening trade deficit in goods and increasing unemployment and prices.  All this as we go into the second half of 2025.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the LDP, has intensified his rhetoric on issues appealing to conservatives, the core LDP base.

This week, the world’s major central bankers have gathered in the sweltering heat of Sintra, Portugal (although I am sure the the aircon is good in their swanky hotel in the hills).

A significant economic slowdown into stagnation, alongside still relatively high inflation; a crippling debt burden for the majority of the world’s population eking out a bare living; and an accelerating climate crisis—none of these issues will be discussed in the Rockies or in the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.

The Critique was in a short letter written by Marx 150 years ago. In 2025, it remains just as clear and relevant to understanding communism as the alternative to capitalism.

Trump backed down because the bond market was showing signs of severe stress that could lead to a credit squeeze, particularly for hedge funds that own a significant stock of U.S. bonds.

Where is all this going? Well, it means a slump in production in the U.S. and most major economies; and it means a revival of inflation, particularly in the U.S. This is madness, no? Well, as I said last February when all this kicked off, there is method in this madness.

It’s not April Fools day (1 April). But it might as well be as later today U.S. President Donald Trump announces another barrage of tariffs on imports into the U.S. in what Trump calls ‘Liberation Day’ and what America’s voice of big business and finance, the Wall Street journal, has called “the dumbest trade war in history.”

Warmongering has reached fever pitch in Europe. It all started with the U.S. under Trump deciding that paying for the military ‘protection’ of European capitals from potential enemies was not worth it.