Time to Get Serious: Financial Tremors Show the Handwriting Is On the Wall | EIRNS

by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Like in Rembrandt's Belshazzar's Feast, the writing is on the wall for the global financial system.

Over the recent days, major figures across the Western financial world have warned that shocks to the global financial system are imminent, and that certain of the highest-performing stocks have been overvalued. It was only days after the Federal Reserve began injecting emergency liquidity into the banking system, in the largest move of its type since 2019-2020. As with the story of Belshazzar, the handwriting is on the wall for all to see—the question is whether anyone at the party will heed its warning.

These shocks point to something far greater than a simple “drawdown,” however, as the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley warned this week. For those not whistling past the graveyard, the worry is the rot in the Western financial system as a whole. Since its near collapse in 2008, this system has been kept afloat only by tossing it from bubble to bubble. As Lyndon LaRouche long insisted, real economic growth doesn’t come from inflated financial values, but rather from physical-economic actions that transform a nation’s productivity and lift the standard of living for all. Rather than tech companies purchasing entire power plants to fuel their speculative AI bubble, for example, how much more could be accomplished if Western productive facilities were put to work building new, modern infrastructure? Or in building a tunnel connecting Europe and Africa under the Strait of Gibraltar, a project that was discovered to be feasible according to a recent study commissioned by the Spanish government?

In contrast, the two-day visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to China has showcased what two nations committed to a policy of physical-economic development look like. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Mishustin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with the top 10-15 ministers in each of their governments. As Xi said at the meeting, “China-Russia relations have forged ahead this year despite the turbulent external environment,” and, “China stands ready to work with Russia to pursue greater synergy… for the continuing benefit of our two peoples.” The two nations continue taking steps to further integrate their economies and development models. At the same time as Mishustin’s meetings were going on, Russian President Putin issued a proposal for further development of Russia’s Far East, another frontier for the coming century.

The timely death of one of the leading promoters of the policy of regime-change wars, Dick Cheney, presents a useful inflection point for the West, between a failed policy that should itself die, and an as-of-yet-undetermined new direction. Instead of geopolitical confrontation and bloated military budgets, the West could pursue a policy of win-win collaboration with the nations of the Global South and the rest of the world. Such a shift is in fact what is needed to address the impending blowout of the speculative financial system, and re-orient the economy instead toward productive physical growth.

This will be the subject of this weekend’s Nov. 8 conference, co-hosted by Solidarité & Progrès and the Schiller Institute in Paris. Be sure to tune in and participate.