Bubble About To Break
$2 Quadrillion Barrier
After a period of relative stagnation from 2008 to 2012, the British Empire's global speculative bubble took off like a rocket in early 2013, and is currently hyperinflating at a rate of over 20% per year. This translates into total global financial assets reaching somewhere in the range of $1.90-1.95 quadrillion as of June 2014, on a trajectory of breaking the $2 quadrillion barrier imminently. Nearly 90% of those global assets are financial derivatives—that is, totally speculative assets with no backing whatsoever in real production.
The latest statistics published by the Bank for International Settlements show that officially counted derivatives (which are about half the actual total of all open derivatives bets, according to EIR's estimates) had contracted by 2.3%, from December 2011 to December 2012. But in June 2013, the annualized rate of growth jumped to 8.5%; in December 2013, the annual rate leapt to 12.3%; and as of March 2014 (the latest data available), derivatives were soaring by 19% per year. It is expected that when the figures for June 2014 appear, they will easily exceed 20%.
Total global financial assets grew "only" from $1.370 to $1.465 quadrillion in the five years from 2008 to 2012. But in the most recent 18 months, they have soared to an estimated $1.963 quadrillion.
—Dennis Small
