From Crisis to Crisis

From crisis to crisis
In his book “Emergency Capitalism and the Surrender of the Left,” Fabio Vighi describes the ruinous path that the modern financial system has taken to save itself.

The analysis of capitalism has always been a core virtue of the left, but today it is questionable whether the old patterns of thinking still fit the reality that is to be described. The traditional wage-labor society no longer exists, and capital accumulation today increasingly takes place in financial bubbles that are not backed by the real economy. To prevent these bubbles from bursting, constant and intertwined crises are needed that allow no respite. If calm were to return, even for a short time, it would suddenly become apparent how much of the system is based on fiction. At least, that is Fabio Vighi's analysis. In “Emergency Capitalism and the Surrender of the Left,” he not only presents a sketch of capitalism in its final stage, but also deals with those who have always been known for seeing through it, but who today are failing due to their own economic blindness.
by Angelika Gutsche

[This article posted on 12/9/2025 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.manova.news/artikel/von-krise-zu-krise.]

The booklet “Emergency Capitalism and the Surrender of the Left” is a continuation and supplement to the previous publication “Emergency Capitalism.” But what exactly is meant by the term “emergency capitalism” — also known as “catastrophe,” “crisis,” or “zombie capitalism”? And why has “the left” capitulated?

According to Vighi, emergency capitalism is characterized by the creation of crises that are necessary to keep financial capitalism, which is on the verge of collapse, alive. Increasing automation and declining profit rates in the real economy have caused capital to flee into financial speculation, creating huge speculative bubbles. To avoid hyperinflation, capital must not enter the real economy, but is instead diverted into speculative bubbles on the financial markets by means of “crisis management” — coronavirus and war.

The left recognizes that the cyclical phases priced into capitalism have now turned into a structural permanent crisis. The aim is to prevent its implosion through ever more credit and, as a result, ever higher debt. However, the left overlooks the new development—the dissolution of the old relationship between wage labor and capital by financial capital. Today, capital accumulation no longer occurs solely through the exploitation of labor, but wealth is generated through a simulation of growth without substance. Therefore, the question must be updated to: How can we overcome not only capitalism, but also wage labor?

Vighi points out that in recent years, not only have the financial markets been manipulated and systemically distorted, but so has reality. The new capitalist era is therefore based on manipulation and control. By creating a scapegoat—see Corona and Russia—the system may not succeed in solving the problem, but at least it manages to postpone it.

The current economic system is in constant deficit, requiring more and more inflationary cash, which it sucks in like a black hole in the form of derivatives. Such a system must end in collapse. Those in power are therefore trying to destroy it in a controlled manner by means of self-made crises in order to build a new monetary infrastructure, which is likely to be based on the central bank's digital currency. These crises must be so traumatic for people that they are willing to not only accept the “new digital chains, but beg for them.”

Vighi considers both neo-Keynesian and neoliberal concepts to be outdated, incapable of reviving the capitalist mode of production. Whether there is a deflationary market crash or a hyperinflationary cycle, in either case the elites will offer digital money management by the central bank as the solution, a “digital vaccine” so to speak.

The steady decline in economic growth requires increasing money creation in order to service debt repayment, which has led to a “grotesque dependence on credit creation.” Since capital can no longer be easily reproduced through profit investments, dependence on credit is becoming a chronic addiction. And “the greater the gap between real capital and fictitious credit, the greater the potential for systemic collapse.”

Wars — Globalization — Economic Crash
Vighi sees the main cause of military conflicts as the excesses of globalization coupled with socio-economic collapse. “Since 2011, the US has been waging war continuously, which (...) has directly and indirectly claimed around 4.5 million lives,” says Vighi. Due to the connection between its global economic dominance and its military complex, the US caused chaos with the aim of maintaining its economic hegemony for even longer. The expansion of debt made it possible to finance the huge military at home and abroad, supported by the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The war against the virus has been seamlessly replaced by a real war. But China's growth has also been based on credit since the global financial crisis of 2008. Therefore, the emerging multi-polar world order is characterized by the same “self-destructive tendency as the faltering capitalist mode of production.”

The inability of the left to recognize
The author devotes an entire chapter to the philosopher Skavoj Žižek and the inability of the left to recognize how the coronavirus crisis (...) accelerated the rise of authoritarian capitalism. The absence of any left-wing opposition is a key factor in the success of the neoliberal revolution. In order to prevent the collapse of capitalism, attempts are being made to transform “our identity from a consumer-oriented one to a legally disempowered one,” including by authoritarian means. “Capitalism is reinventing itself as a fully digitized feudal technology.” The virus has not fostered global solidarity, but rather a “violent process of ‘creative destruction’ (J.A. Schumpeter)” aimed at “installing socio-economic apartheid.” It is therefore necessary to develop collective forms of resistance so as not to wake up as slaves in a “neo-feudal inferno.”

Driving forces of senile capitalism
The author sees five driving forces of senile capitalism, on which he comments in detail. Debt is necessary to obtain liquidity in order to inject these funds into the economy in the form of loans.

Cheap loans would lead to financial bubbles, the bursting of which should be avoided. A controlled destruction of the “working society” is necessary to maintain the speculative markets. Consumer capitalism is transforming and becoming the manager of collective impoverishment. The final phase of bubble capitalism is characterized by permanent states of emergency and crises. To realize this, it is necessary to establish a “hyper-reality” through manipulation and media propaganda.

Vighi discusses Covid, Ukraine, and Israel in detail—as interchangeable emergencies to ensure a continuous supply of liquidity to the bond markets and generate money out of thin air. “Capital is completely indifferent to the extent of suffering it inflicts on humanity” when it comes to following the drive to maximize profits. The war that has also been declared on conspiracy theories is intended to silence any critical thinking.

Vighi sees “the stage set for a new September 11.”
According to the author, “the dominant but highly indebted financial casino (...) can only remain inflated through the controlled destruction of the remnants of the productive economy.” There is no going back to the “good old days”; the “nostalgic longing for the mass labor society of post-war Fordism is a chimera.”

The logic of crisis capitalism requires the constant taking out of new loans to fuel financial bubbles. “The feedback loop of debt, finance, imperialist delusions, economic downturn, and ideological perception control will continue for years to come.”

Financial casino — cryptocurrency — debt
Right now, “casino capitalism is riding a huge wave of crypto ecstasy” driven by Donald Trump. The attempt to bring cryptocurrencies into the mainstream, coupled with further deregulation of the banking system, serves to “integrate the entire system into the global panopticon of complete tokenization.” The working society is “now dissolving into an atomized ‘jungle society’ in which traditional class distinctions no longer apply.” “The structural collapse of the social contract between labor and capital that underpins the modern liberal order can only lead to a rise in institutional cynicism.”

The author also discusses Berlin's mega economic stimulus package, von der Leyen's Re-Arm Europe project, and the lifting of restrictions on deficit spending, provided the funds are used for war, with the strengthening of the military-industrial complex being made palatable to the population through targeted rhetoric designed to instill fear. The “capitalist mode of production has long since confirmed its true nature as a mode of production of destruction.”

Donald Trump — Tariff policy — Interest rate cuts
Vighi devotes the last chapter to Donald Trump's tariff policy. He considers his changeable trade policy to be a diversionary tactic, with an economic slowdown being desirable.

The figures speak for themselves: by the end of 2025, the US will have to refinance around nine trillion US dollars in maturing debt, plus a government deficit of nearly two trillion US dollars — without “the US dollar as a global reserve currency, this massive imbalance would already have led to insolvency.” Therefore, interest rates on this gigantic debt must be significantly reduced at all costs — made possible by lowering yields on government bonds. This is because every basis point of interest rate reduction could save billions in interest payments. Under these circumstances, a recession and financial downturn could prove positive, as they could prevent insolvency.

Japan is also caught in the same debt trap that the West has fallen into, with the world's highest debt ratio of around 250 percent. Europe itself seems unable to do anything other than “hide its nakedness behind a grotesque arms race” in order to maintain the financial bubbles.

The highly indebted financial casino can only be kept running through the controlled destruction of the remaining productive economy, and to do so, real demand must be methodically suppressed, while at the same time, fiscal spending at unaffordable levels must be undertaken to rescue the markets. In order to prevent people from looking behind the scenes of this perverse game, political divisions are staged: “political theater as grotesque crisis management.”

Fabio Vighi: “Either we wake up and find ways to resist this ruinous path, or we will be overwhelmed by it.”

In the foreword, Wolfram Elsner points out that Fabio Vighi is neither an economist nor a financial expert, but a professor of critical theory, and therefore not obliged to develop solutions. His work consists of “important ideological criticism of a warmongering ‘green’ ideology or a neoliberally confused left.”

Confirmation of Fabio Vighi's theses can currently be found in the deeply cynical headline of Boerse-Express from November 21, 2025, which reads: “Rheinmetall shares: Fear of peace shocks investors.”

In order to find a way out of the impending catastrophe for humanity, a relentless analysis of the existing conditions is indispensable—especially in view of the obfuscation tactics of those in power. Fabio Vighi makes a valuable contribution to the discussion in this regard.

You can order the book here: “Emergency Capitalism”


Angelika Gutsche, born in 1955, is a certified psychologist. After many years working in the film department at the Goethe-Institut, she now works as a freelancer. In addition to writing travelogues, she writes a blog focusing on developments in Libya, as well as other current political and literary topics. For more information, visit gela-news.de and angelika-gutsche.de.