‘A bit of pain’ for us, profits for them
The IMF has warned that the Iran war could tank the global economy. US Treasury Secretary and warmonger Scott Bessent responded that “a small bit of economic pain” is worth “long-term international security”.
Economic pain for whom exactly? Bessent is worth $600 million, having made his money by trading against the pound during 1992’s Black Wednesday, and betting that US stocks would rise after Trump’s 2024 election. He receives a $250,000 annual salary, and before 2026 gained $1 million annually as a landlord. He does not need to worry about how rising prices will affect him and his family.
Not so for the rest of us. For the average worker, the 25 percent increase in petrol prices is devastating, and will push up to 32.5 million people worldwide into poverty, with many more on the brink. If war breaks out once more, this estimate will only rise.
And even if the war ends, continued uncertainty and creeping inflation will keep prices high. UK food prices will rise by at least 9 percent this year. There are now even warnings of possible food shortages on grocery essentials like pork, chicken, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
Of course, this won’t concern Bessent, who dines at luxury restaurants in Washington DC without needing to look at the price tag.
But every chicken comes home to roost. When the working class expropriates the billionaires and their stooges, we can throw these words in their face: ‘a small bit of economic pain’ is worth the liberation we strive for!
Katya Turchin, Birmingham
War is terrible – terribly profitable!
If the devastation of the war on Iran has you down, try to find solace in the joy of the oil CEOs. As the world reels, Shell’s quarterly profits have surged to $7 billion, while BP’s have doubled to $3.2bn, as the price of oil skyrockets. It turns out global misery is remarkably good for the bottom line!
Thomas Soud, Birmingham
Epstein Class bets on our misery
Last month, a US Special Forces soldier and budding property entrepreneur was arrested for betting on the abduction of Maduro on Polymarket, which he was personally involved in.
This crypto-based prediction market allows users to “profit from their knowledge” by betting on almost anything. The two main prediction markets have a total notional trading volume of approximately $5 billion a week.
This represents a colossal transfer of wealth from the desperate to the ‘knowledgeable’ – i.e. the ruling class, who use their insider information to accumulate appalling sums of money.
On Polymarket, 0.04 percent of traders captured 70 percent of the total profits, while 70 percent of users recorded losses. It is a casino where the political and military elites can leverage their positions to make personal superprofits.
This shows how the ruling class really think. They bet on the austerity policies they push, as millions are driven into poverty and desperation by insecurity. They bet on the wars they create, as thousands are killed and millions are displaced in Iran and Lebanon from their relentless strikes. Their callousness and lack of humanity is on full display.
But this is nothing new. Back in 2010, Lord Peter Mandelson, as Business Secretary, emailed Jeffrey Epstein warning him of the resignation of Gordon Brown and later the Eurozone bailout.
This information allowed Epstein and his cabal of financiers the freedom to make runs on the Euro and Pound, and enrich themselves once again off of the financial crisis of 2008. Meanwhile, ordinary people were forced to pay for the bank bailouts through generations of austerity.
Polymarket insists that this recent arrest “is proof the system works.” In a way, they’re right. The system works for the Epstein class: to use their power, wealth, and connections to profit from our misery – if only they don’t get caught!
Sanmay, Bristol
Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter hit by global instability
Speculators, opportunists, and bankers are buying up gold and silver to get rich from the ongoing economic instability. This is how the Iran War is affecting me and my mother personally, as well as one of Birmingham’s biggest industries.
My mum has 21 years’ experience working in the Jewellery Quarter (JQ), one of the last surviving pieces of Birmingham’s industry, and one of the biggest producing areas in Europe.
The JQ has long been under pressure from cuts and property sell-offs by the bankrupt Birmingham City Council. But the Iran War, and the overall increase in the price of gold, has accelerated its crisis.
Since 2016 the price of gold has increased 345 percent (£28.88 to £128.65). When my mum saw the latest prices, she said “I sunk my head in my hands. There is no way we can sell anything.”
While the price of gold is crippling existing businesses, the price of silver is twisting the knife, by preventing any new intake into the industry. My mum has seen a huge drop in the number of students from the school of jewellery in the past few years.
Silver is the bread and butter of the jewellery trade: students will use it to start building their business. Silver has increased 149 percent in price in just the last six months, this is pushing out any new jewellers, and deterring customers that don’t want to pay the prices.
It has reached such critical levels that the JQ is almost completely empty. The only sign of life is people queuing to scrap their silver. My mum’s business associate told her “I’m having to scrap my silver to pay the wages of my workers”.
No one is buying anything, and no one new is coming into the trade. This will lead to its eventual death, much to the elation of the cash-strapped Birmingham City Council, who want to sell off the land to property developers – who will in turn use it to build unaffordable flats.
The crisis in the world economy is reaching deep into the lives of ordinary workers and small businesses. The struggle for thriving communities goes hand in hand with the struggle against war and imperialism.
Mina Sumner, Cardiff
