Downstream: 2008 Whistleblower on the Next Big Crash w/ Ann Pettifor
Novara Media
Novara Media
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 77 minutes
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Summary
This week, Donald Trump continued his streak of threatening tariffs against any country that opposes him, increasing the odds of an escalating trade war and further destabilising the global economic system. But according to this week’s guest, the system is in desperate need of reform. Indeed, she thinks without a complete structural overhaul, it will soon ‘blow itself up.’
On Downstream this week is Keynesian economist, Ann Pettifor, to discuss her latest book, ‘The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet.’ In conversation with Ash Sarkar, they discuss the state of the global economy, and the ‘shadow’ banking system that holds $217 trillion in financial assets – beyond the control of any taxman. How did Ann predict, with precision and foresight, the global financial crisis of 2008? Will the AI bubble burst, triggering the next economic crisis? And is the Green New Deal – which Ann helped to create – dead in the water, or a transformative plan B that we can turn to when the next crisis invariably comes?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before I start today's downstream, I want to tell you a really stupid story. |
| 0:12.0 | A few years ago, when a bunch of Reditors basically had Wall Street hedge fund managers by the |
| 0:17.4 | Short and Curleys by buying shares in GameStop, I decided to write about it for |
| 0:21.8 | Navarra Media. And so that meant researching what a short position was and finding out the difference |
| 0:27.7 | between retail traders and big hedge funds. And I did the thing that journalists do, which is I read about |
| 0:33.2 | something for 10 minutes and I got 1,000 words worth of article copy out of it. And the next thing I know, I ended up on the news, sat between two hedge fund managers, |
| 0:42.3 | feeling like a dog in a trench coat. |
| 0:44.3 | Because while I could tell this story about GameStop, I was like, |
| 0:47.3 | oh my god, if anyone asks me what an interest rate is, I'm toast. |
| 0:51.3 | Which is probably a weakness for the left, right? Our next guest |
| 0:56.1 | argues that if we really want to achieve anything politically, we have a duty to get our heads |
| 1:02.4 | around what's actually going on in the global money market. Because the stuff we think about |
| 1:07.6 | as being within the domain of politics, fiscal policy, tax and spend, |
| 1:12.3 | it's actually pocket change compared to the hundreds of trillions of dollars housed within the shadow |
| 1:18.5 | banking system. That's why I'm so pleased to be joined by Anne Petitfa, who was one of the few |
| 1:23.6 | economists to see the 2008 financial crisis coming. In her new book, she explores what's |
| 1:29.1 | actually happening in the murky world of globalised finance, how it disempowers governments and |
| 1:35.0 | democracies, and crucially, what we can do to get our power back. I hope that you learn as much |
| 1:40.8 | as I did from this interview. Maybe you won't. Maybe you're not as dumb as me, |
| 1:44.5 | but enjoy the interview either way. Anne Petitfa, welcome to downstream. Thank you. |
| 1:49.8 | Thank you. It's such an honour to be here with you. You've been such an influence, I think, |
| 1:53.3 | on the organisation in ways which are sort of obvious ones, we've read your books, da, da, but also |
... |
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