22nd August 2026
There is speculation everywhere, including in the Financial Times, that the USA might go bust within ten years, and that the day of the dollar is over.
That framing is wrong. America cannot go bust, because its debt is denominated in its own currency and it can always create the dollars required to settle it.
But that does not mean we are safe. What can fail is the financial market itself, and that is the crisis nobody is preparing for.
The warning signs are everywhere. Share prices sit near all-time highs. Investment funds hold more of their money in shares than they almost ever have, with almost no cash left in reserve. The FT has concluded that US financial markets are "nuts" and have lost touch with reality. And bubbles always burst, and this one will. The promise that "this time is different" is always made, and it is always wrong.
This video explains what actually happens when confidence collapses, why our "animal spirits", as Keynes called them, can crash along with the markets, and why only governments can save us from the folly of finance yet again.
The biggest crisis we face is not that a crash is coming. It is that we have no plan to manage it. Think of this as the summer of 1939: a crisis is about to emerge, with no one ready.
00:00 Can the USA Go Bust?
00:43 Why the US Cannot Run Out of Dollars
01:25 Warning Signs in US Financial Markets
02:10 What Could Trigger a Financial Crash?
03:04 Bubbles Always Burst
03:48 What Happens if Financial Markets Collapse?
04:42 How a Crash Reaches the Real Economy
05:31 Could We Face Another Depression?
06:20 Governments Must Be Ready to Intervene
07:01 The US Cannot Go Bust — But Its Banks Can