Novara Media

Downstream: 2008 Whistleblower on the Next Big Crash w/ Ann Pettifor

10 snips
Jan 26, 2026
Ann Pettifor, Keynesian economist who foresaw 2008 and campaigns on debt relief and a Green New Deal. She unpacks the $217 trillion shadow banking system, the mechanics behind the 2008 collapse and why AI investment looks like a speculative bubble. She critques crypto, pensionized speculation and central bank power, and argues finance must be tamed for any credible Green New Deal.
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ANECDOTE

From Gold Town To Global Debt Campaigns

  • Ann Pettifor traces her economics journey from a South African gold-mining town to campaigning on sovereign debt and predicting the 2008 crash.
  • She turned practical campaigning (Jubilee 2000) and research at the New Economics Foundation into forecasting the coming systemic blow-up.
ANECDOTE

How Pole Dancers Helped Crash Wall Street

  • Pettifor recounts how Wall Street lent risky mortgages to very poor people, whose defaults then triggered the global crash.
  • She highlights the paradox that the poorest mortgage holders helped collapse the entire system.
INSIGHT

Casino Finance Vs The Real Economy

  • The economy lives in real production and income while finance is a vast 'casino' detached from real value creation.
  • Pettifor warns $500tn in financial assets dwarfs $100tn GDP, so financial crashes tether gamblers back to public institutions.
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