Economist Who Predicted 2008: "The AI Bubble is Worse" | Ann Pettifor

<p>Interview recorded - 2nd of November, 2026On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on Ann Pettifor. Ann is an international political economist, author and public speaker.During our conversation we spoke about the current situation in the economy, what she saw in the financial crisis, why she sees the AI bubble as another debt collapse, shadow banking, system change and more. I hope you enjoy!0:00 - Introduction1:20 - Overview of the debt landscape5:30 - Warning Signs of Crash9:04 - Government debt14:30 - High Inflation after WW216:30 - Shadow Banking20:58 - Rent Seeking Economies26:26 - Changing the system30:50 - China to adjust?34:26 - Credit Crisis Worse than 2008?38:42 - One message to takeaway?Ann Pettifor is an international political economist, author and public speaker. Her latest book, The Global Casino: How Wall St Gambles with People and the Planet, was published in January 2026. In 2019 Verso published The Case for the Green New Deal, which by 2020 had been translated into German by Hamburger Edition, Italian by Fazi Editore and Swedish by Verbal Förlag. The English paperback, with an added Afterword, appeared in bookstores from September 2020. The Production of Money, published by Verso in spring 2017, explains the nature of money and the monetary system, tackles thorny issues like Bitcoin and QE, and is written to be accessible to a wide audience. It too was translated into German and published by Hamburger Edition, and later into Spanish.In 2003, as editor of The Real World Economic Outlook (Palgrave Macmillan), she predicted an Anglo-American debt-deflationary crisis. This was followed in September 2006 by her book predicting the Global Financial Crisis, The Coming First World Debt Crisis, published by Palgrave.Known for her work on sovereign debt and the international financial architecture, she led the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which as part of an international movement resulted in the cancellation of approximately $100 billion of debt owed by the poorest countries, and in the clearance of $30 billion of debt by the Nigerian government in 2005.Ann Pettifor - Website - https://annpettifor.com/Substack - https://substack.com/@annpettiforBook - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1804297224/WTFinance -Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfniTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4Twitter - https://twitter.com/Antho