{"id":95362,"date":"2026-09-01T07:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=95362"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T06:56:14","slug":"will-the-smug-certainty-of-the-ft-be-swept-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/09\/01\/will-the-smug-certainty-of-the-ft-be-swept-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the smug certainty of the FT be swept away?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the FT noted<\/a> in an article this weekend:<\/p>\n

If you thought American socialism was all Marxist reading groups and picket lines, think again. These days, it is just as likely to be softball leagues, crafting clubs and \u201ccocktails with comrades\u201d.<\/p>\n

These are the inducements the Democratic Socialists of America are offering curious Gen Zers looking for a new political home. They seem to be working.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They headlined their article:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Capitalism\u2019s not working\u2019: why Democrats are turning to socialism<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That message is clear. Another weekend article in the FT<\/a> echoed it. This time, the headline was:<\/p>\n

\n

The face of America\u2019s socialist insurgency: <\/span>The Democratic congressional candidate\u2019s improbable rise has spooked the party establishment<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Anyone might think that the FT is feeling a little worried. So it should be. It is one of the most prominent faces of the neoliberal capital movement, which is so very obviously failing that even in the USA people are now openly rejecting it because it is so clearly failing to meet people\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

The deeply contented edifice that is the Financial Times, populated by teams of people who have done particularly well from maintaining the status quo of the last 45 years, does need to feel that it is under threat, because the reality is that the winds of change are blowing, and they are heading its way.<\/p>\n

Will articles like this save the neoliberal edifice that the FT supports from collapse? I very much doubt it, at least not without a radical reawakening on its part.<\/p>\n

That said, I am not pretending that neoliberal capitalism is going to fall over by a week next Tuesday. That would be unrealistic. But that it might sometime soon is clearly possible.<\/p>\n

As I suggested in my discussion on Andy Burnham yesterday<\/a>, the chance of a major financial recession in the next three years is very high indeed. There is an ongoing war that is going to cause energy and food shortages. This autumn's El Ni\u00f1o is likely to reinforce the impact on food, as will this summer\u2019s droughts. And, as even the FT notes, the likelihood that there will be an AI crash is very high indeed.<\/p>\n

I cannot rule out entirely the chance that this time stock market fortunes in the face of what looks like an overhyped peak will be different, but there are very few reasonable commentators, from Andrew Bailey at the Bank of England<\/a> onwards, who think otherwise. The troubling fact is that so big is the hype this time, and so far does it reach through the shadow banking system, which is much larger than it was in 2008 precisely because it has sought to avoid the regulation that the crash in that year brought in, that the fall could be at least as dramatic, if not worse, than what happened then.<\/p>\n

If the FT does not change its tune soon, it will find itself singing from a hymn sheet designed for a wedding when it will be at the funeral of the failed economic system that it has so heavily promoted.<\/p>\n

So, the question is, will the FT notice in advance, or will it, safe and secure as it feels itself to be at present, stay as it is until the tsunami of change that such a collapse might bring this time sweeps over it? To that question I have no answer except what historical precedent suggests, which is that those comfortable with their situation rarely, if ever, anticipate the change that will sweep their security away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the FT noted in an article this weekend: If you thought American socialism was all Marxist reading groups and picket lines, think again. These
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