On Jun. 4, 2025, ITR Economics gave an update on the possibility of another Great Depression. For many years, the financial collapse has been projected to occur in the 2030s. That time has finally come, as the predicted catalysts have steadily become reality over the past six years.
People across the world are experiencing an economic crisis on the brink of collapse. These issues include inflation, sanctions, and, worst of all, unnecessary war. All eyes are watching the disastrous state of the United States, as the Trump administration has driven the country’s reputation to the ground. Yet, other nations should also carefully watch their own.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Financial Ties to the Powerful & Wealthy
Since former DOGE commander Elon Musk blew the whistle on President Donald Trump’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, more of his wealthy clients have been discovered. The ongoing investigations and hearings have uncovered that the late sex trafficker had contacted multiple politicians, celebrities, and business leaders from around the globe.
For example, in the United Kingdom, a former member of the House of Lords, Peter Mandelson, resigned from the European Trade Commission. He forfeited his government position in the first week of February after US investigators found messages between him and Epstein. The emails and bank statements revealed that the financier wired $75,000 USD to the former lord’s partner, Reinaldo Avila de Silva.
Mandelson is under a new investigation, suspected by his closest ally, Morgan McSweeney. He resigned in the days following his arrest and reported that his phone had been stolen. Due to the immense pressure of the Epstein Files, the Cabinet Office is demanding that Mandelson and his associates submit all forms of communication, including cell phones. His conviction shifted the British Pound price, from rising to $1.5 USD to dropping to $1.46 USD.
US Repercussions
Epstein is also responsible for causing distrust in the US market because of his connections with Wall Street investors. The latest case settlements involved bank firms Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. The US Virgin Islands sued the banks for $75 million as compensation for victims due to the institutions’ failure to identify transactions by the financier’s clients.
One of these accounts belonged to Wall Street titan and former co-founder of Apollo Global Management, Leon Black. According to The New York Times, Black and Epstein had communicated with each other regarding sexual arrangements with women in exchange for lower tax payments. These conversations included the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSR). His affair with Guzel Ganieva stirred blackmail threats, as she demanded $100 million USD to keep it secret.
Epstein assisted Black by contacting Russian official Sergei Belyakov to find Ganieva’s personal information. They countered her threat after he learned that she had confronted other businessmen making similar demands. With US attorney Brad Karp, Black successfully kept Ms. Ganieva quiet by proposing $18 million in hush money in October 2015.
And Epstein’s curiosity in Bitcoin caused one of the most gut-wrenching crashes in the crypto market. He had numerous discussions and island arrangements with various crypto business leaders about the digital golden goose. Not to mention Trump’s deep appreciation for the late financier and his bullish investments caused Bitcoin to decline to the $60K range.
The Ever-Growing Tariffs
It’s no surprise that the entirety of Earth hates the intentional tariffs of Donald Trump. ITR Economics has foreseen that this financial scare tactic will lead to the Great Depression of the 2030s. While Trump believed increasing import prices would help the economy, the opposite effect prevailed.
China became the US’s leading target because it controls 35% of manufactured goods, especially when it comes to providing rare metals for computer parts. It later backfired on Trump after the Asian nation became more self-sufficient, relying on what it had and focusing on improving its job market.
The US president continues to use tariffs as a retaliatory measure against anyone who rejects his ideals or fails to meet his demands. Because he refused to give in and accept the state of the US economy, the White House faces an endless stream of lawsuits.
These class-action cases argue that the president has abused his executive powers, even after the Supreme Court defined them as illegal. Many of the plaintiffs, including Nintendo, are suing Trump for violating IEEPA. His irrational actions have damaged businesses by targeting consumer goods and grocery prices. Customers globally are spending less on entertainment to keep enough change for food on the table and rent.
Sanctions Are Restricting Nations, But Not the Endorsers
While some countries struggle with inflation, others struggle to thrive due to sanctions. Unlike tariffs, sanctions restrict certain goods from entering a country or lower the value of its currency. Nations strategically use them to isolate their targets from accessing necessities and weaken their military power.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control reported 16 countries were affected by sanctions in the past year. Caribbean nations such as Cuba and other southern hemisphere countries like Venezuela became prime locations for the US Navy to combat against narcoterrorists. The timing was unfortunate during 2025 as Cuba was rebelling against US sovereignty to free itself from a 68- year embargo, followed by Hurricane Melissa.
Meanwhile, the US successfully captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Sanctions were used to limit boat trade routes, but it wasn’t for the better. Cuba, which has been hit the hardest by sanctions, experienced two national blackouts due to a lack of access to fossil fuels.
University of St. Thomas economics professor Tyler Schipper may have found another reason why inflation continues to rise. On Mar. 19, he appeared on Good Morning America and said that the items we buy most depend on transportation shipments.
“Pretty much everything you buy off a shelf is delivered by a truck that uses diesel,” Schipper said in the broadcast. “[…] It’s hard to separate the upstream inflation pressure already there from the pressure that’s coming from oil price increases.” Schipper’s statement aligns with the Trump administration’s plan to address the global oil shortage by lifting the oil embargo on Russia and threatening to open up the Strait of Hormuz.
Venezuela is experiencing a similar change with its illegal gold mining operations. Previously, in 2016, the country’s southern provinces experienced high amounts of violence during operations. It was sanctioned to reduce tension, prevent the use of forced slave labor, and preserve the environment. Now, OFAC is offering licenses to mining firms to extract gold from the country for semiconductors and other machines.
The AI Bubble Has Burst
Speaking of semiconductors, almost the entire world is experiencing the Memory Crisis. Thanks to Sam Altman’s OpenAI mission to spend $1.4 trillion USD to accelerate AI data center development, RAM, SSDs, and GPU prices have skyrocketed. He and his former partners are experiencing repercussions for overinvesting in products that would rapidly lose their momentum.
Micron and Samsung have already admitted in 2025 to prioritizing business leaders over consumers. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has actively sought to support AI data centers and other automated technologies. His rival, AMD’s Lisa Su, followed his lead in hopes of providing stronger computing power to meet the demands of training AI.
Microsoft actively destroyed Windows 11 by pushing Copilot products at the expense of user privacy. And Elon Musk tried to be competitive with Twitter’s image generator, Grok. In the end, the AI Bubble popped, exposing that OpenAI is not the company that it appears to be.
Sam Altman’s AI empire is crumbling as we speak. His ChatGPT billion-dollar revenue did not match his trillion-dollar initiative. Multiple reports have confirmed he would implement advertisements in the AI app’s free version. After he demanded and received a $110 billion in funding, he agreed to replace Anthropic for the US Defense Department.
His decisions drove his partners to retract their deals, including Disney canceling former CEO Bob Iger’s horrific decision to provide their character IPs for Sora. More companies with creatives are still challenging OpenAI for scraping content to train their LLMs.
The AI Bubble continues to decline as certain states across the US protest against AI data centers to prevent environmental damage and extreme energy bills. The Wall Street giants who supported their construction are having second thoughts about their investments. The New Yorker previously predicted a phenomenon that will lead to a crash as impactful as the 1929 Stock Market Crash, which caused the Great Depression in the US and worldwide.
Social Discrimination Rose to Unsettling Levels
In 2025 and 2026, we are witnessing similar trends to those that presaged the Great Depression. The economic crisis was affected by discrimination against non-white races and LGBTQ+ individuals. African Americans had the highest unemployment rate, Japanese immigrants were taken into concentration camps, and those with a different sexual orientation chose to hide out of sight.
History is repeating itself with President Trump heavily critical and disdainful toward Latin Americans or anyone of Spanish descent. They were labeled as “drug traffickers” and “illegal criminals.” Kilmar Abrego Garcia has played a key role in exposing the Trump administration’s judicial prejudice.
He was deported to El Salvador without due process, which soon brought karma to the US government. He finally was able to stay in the US when a federal judge ordered ICE to release him from unlawful custody on Dec. 11, 2025. He faced off against former US Attorney Rob McGuire in court in February, who was defending the Trump administration on allegations that the charges leveled against Abrego Garcia were vindictive
President Trump and his associates also actively promote xenophobia, racism, and homophobia. They have been trying to suppress LGBT and non-white individuals who made history in the US. Part of their tactics has been erasing the DEI programs that funded and supported organizations and protected workplace equality. The president is now challenging the Supreme Court to end birthright citizenship.
Unfortunately, prejudice spreads beyond the United States. Japanese citizens have faced similar issues and want Japan’s current prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, to intercede. One of their top priorities is the unfairness of the Asylum Seekers and Refugee system, which remains strongly oriented against granting refugee status.
And Europe could see a repeat of the 2022 Ukrainian refugee crisis as more Iranians flee to Turkey from the warzone. Such migration saw Poland, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary, and Greece actually mistreat non-Ukrainian survivors who waited to be transported to safety since 2015. Meanwhile, 3.2 million people have escaped the US-Iran War after being displaced.
According to Newsweek, certain European countries are limiting the number of refugees they’ll accept and experiencing anti-immigration sentiments. Spain recently announced that it will grant legal status to 500,000 undocumented migrants already in the country. This decision has led to tense relations with France, which shares a border with Spain, and fears that an avalanche of additional migrants will take advantage of Spain’s more relaxed policies.
A Great Depression Driven by Leadership Corruption
In the current state of the world, the upcoming Great Depression is driven by these factors. What these factors have in common is that they were caused by corrupt leadership. The Russian-Kyiv War, for example, was an outgrowth of Vladimir Putin’s dream to make Russia whole again.
Like its US counterpart, the four-year-old war is draining its military funds. The Institute for the Study of War reported that Putin recently sought financial help from a top Russian businessman. The Kremlin actively denies the information.
Beyond global conflicts, other forms of corruption are apparent. French President Emmanuel Macron follows the failures of the nation’s Prime Minister François Bayrou. One of their major challenges is completing the 40-year renovation of the Louvre.
The museum was robbed of France’s two crown jewels thanks to an outdated security system and the lack of staff. Meanwhile, Macron wanted to extend the renovation by another 10 years, at a cost of €800 million. Meanwhile, Bayrou proposed reducing government spending on workers by €44 billion.
But the winner of that will drag us faster into a modern Great Depression is the United States. Because of President Trump’s recklessness in government spending, the national debt has exceeded to nearly $39 trillion USD.
This includes using the US-Iran War to avert attention from his involvement in the Epstein Files. The US government is fighting against itself as Democrats and their allies are actively preparing an investigation into the Trump administration for a possible impeachment trial.
