From narco-colonial profits to energy import dependence, and why the next UK downturn could look more like a balance-of-payments event than a garden-variety recession Britain’s current economic vulnerability stems from a legacy of imperial-era external surpluses—funded by exploitative trade systems like the opium trade and slave compensation—that once underwrote its global dominance, now reversed into a fragile model of import dependence, deindustrialization, and financial fragility. Once a net exporter of capital and goods, the UK now runs persistent current account and fiscal deficits, financed by foreign investment in gilts and sterling assets, while its industrial base has been hollowed out—car brands, steel mills, and manufacturing control now owned by foreign firms—and its energy security has collapsed, with net import dependency rising to 41–44% as North Sea production plummets.… Read more

Higher education has long been seen as a path to economic mobility, but in recent years the rising costs of college and soaring student loan balances have prompted questions: Are U.S. university degrees yielding lasting economic returns, or trapping graduates in debt? Nearly 43 million Americans now hold federal student loans (about one in six adults), and the federal loan portfolio exceeds $1.6 trillion. Including private loans, total U.S. student debt approaches $1.8 trillion.… Read more

In 2023 the U.S. was home to roughly 18 million food-insecure households – about 47.4 million people – struggling to get enough to eat. That startling figure captures a paradox: the wealthiest country on earth, with vast fields of abundant crops, still leaves millions of children, adults and seniors uncertain where their next meal will come from. As one anti-hunger advocate put it, these numbers show “we have plenty of poverty and hunger” in “the wealthiest, most powerful nation in world history”.… Read more