2025 as the New 1925: Will Crypto be Trump's Teapot Dome Scandal?
Might 2025 turn out to be the new 1925? In other words, are we currently in the Roaring Twenties and on the brink of another Great Depression? This historical analogy, according to the Financial Times’ chief economics commentator Martin Wolf, isn’t entirely fanciful. Economic history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, Wolf acknowledges, but it has a rhythmic quality. We are living, he suggests, in a “slow-motion” interwar moment. And while FDR is Donald Trump’s mirror image, perhaps the most similar President to Trump was Warren Harding whose administration was deeply tarnished by the Teapot Dome scandal. Crypto, Wolf suggests, might turn out to be Trump’s Teapot Dome. And 2026, Martin Wolf warns, might turn out to be significantly more turbulent for both the US and global economies than 2025.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 2260: Felipe Torres Medina laughs and cries about the American immigration system
Episode 2259: Why AI is about to transform everyone (yes, even you) into a coder
Episode 2258: Joyce Chaplin on how Benjamin Franklin warmed up America
Episode 2257: Kevin Fagan on a San Francisco story of homelessness that will break your heart
Episode 2256: Meenakshi Ahamed on the meteoric rise of Indians in America
Episode 2255: Nicholas Lalla on Reviving the American Dream in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Episode 2254: Why Trump wants to be the Godfather
Episode 2253: John Lechner on the deadly role of Russian Mercenaries in Ukraine
Episode 2252: How to Unstick the Future
Episode 2251: Kristian Ronn on why, in the short term, we all might be dead
Episode 2250 Rebecca Haw Allensworth on America's Cult of the Professional
Episode 2249: Caroline Fleck on the Skill Set that will Change your Life
Episode 2248: Yoni Applebaum on why America is STUCK in a Crisis of Immobility