The global system is breaking — and it’s not the first time.
In this gripping new episode of Big Picture Mind, Robb Smith unpacks what he calls a "Terminal Crisis"—a rare moment in history when the prevailing financial hegemon (today, the United States) loses its grip on a system that is demanding reconfiguration. It’s the fourth such rupture in 700 years, following the Genoese-Iberian empire (1627), the Dutch United Provinces (1781), and the British Empire (1931). And now, in 2025, it’s America’s turn.
What happens next? We enter a period of global economic anarchy—a high-stakes reordering of capital, power, and institutions. Robb traces how the system always adapts, pushing forward into a new "cycle of accumulation" that includes:
- wider geographic integration,
- more complex economic coordination,
- expanded populations and markets, and
- institutional upgrades that solve for the contradictions of the previous cycle.
In this urgent and far-reaching conversation, you'll learn:
- Why the U.S.–China rivalry is about far more than trade;
- How trade wars are also class wars;
- Why the global trust in American soft power has collapsed;
- What Keynes' abandoned proposal—the Bancor—has to do with Bitcoin and the next reserve currency;
- What it will take to build a new integrative pluralism out of the ashes of today's disorder.
Whether we descend into fractured blocs or step toward a new world order, one thing is clear: the system never loses — only hegemons do.
