Trump is like the boy that cried wolf. His threats look increasingly unserious, especially after China showed that he can be made to back down.

The Revolutionary Communist Party rejects all attempts to pass the burden of this crisis onto the backs of working class people.

The unraveling of 80 years of trade integration is going to have massive implications for the world economy. All the benefits of world trade are under threat: greater productivity, cheaper products, etc.

Bourgeois economists declared ‘never again’ on protectionism. But like so many economic ‘never agains’, it has given way to real international and class antagonisms.

This is not our war

For the first time since the Great Depression, labour productivity is falling in Canada. The Bank of Canada has called this “an emergency” and various bourgeois commentators are scrambling for an explanation. However, all of these analysts blame secondary factors and miss the elephant in the room: the system itself. 

The Bank of Canada raised its overnight lending rate for two consecutive months, after pausing its hikes earlier this year. These increases risk throwing workers into bankruptcy and triggering a painful recession.

The latest news shows that the economy is once again taking a turn for the worse. The Eurozone is in recession. China is slowing down sharply. The US is teetering on the brink. Another economic crisis is on the way.

A bankruptcy crisis is looming over the world. The New York Times has called it “a debt crisis unlike anything we have seen”. This isn’t the threat of a handful of banking behemoths going under, however, but rather of entire national economies. Some 54 low and middle-income countries are today teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

As the rate of inflation continues to cut into the living standards of workers, some businesses are posting record profits. Some have pointed the finger at price gouging and the excess profits of big business as the cause. This phenomenon has been dubbed by trade unions and commentators as “greedflation”.