The Crash at the Gates

Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, stock markets have generally experienced steady growth. A striking example of this is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), one of the world’s oldest and most influential stock indices. The Dow Jones hit its lowest point on March 6, 2009, dropping to 6,469.95 points after losing more than half of its value since October 2007. Another sharp decline occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the index fell to 18,591.93 points on March 23, 2020 — down from 29,551.42 points just weeks earlier on February 12, 2020 — a drop of about 37%.

Today, the Dow Jones stands at approximately 43,900 points (as of August 7, 2025), and even surpassed 45,000 points on July 23, 2025. This means the index has surged by an impressive 595.7% since its 2009 low, while the U.S. real GDP grew by approximately 54.6% during the same period (from $15.2 trillion to $23.5 trillion). In other words, the Dow Jones has grown about ten times faster than the real economy.

What can we conclude from these figures? Stock indices, which reflect the value of financial capital and investor expectations, have grown significantly faster than the real economy in recent years. This suggests that current market valuations may be overinflated and disconnected from economic fundamentals. It also highlights how stock market crashes tend to occur cyclically — roughly every few years — and have a strong impact on the broader economy and society.

Today, there are numerous potential triggers that could spark a major stock market crash at any moment — including political uncertainty, high tariffs and debt levels, wars, the climate crisis, and other global challenges.

We may not have prophetic powers to predict the exact timing of the next crash, but the data and historical patterns strongly suggest it is only a matter of time. And the consequences of such crashes are well known — we only need to recall the crash of 1929, which shook the world to its core.

Perhaps now is the time to take a different path. If we continue bailing out the most reckless and greedy players in the great casino that modern financial markets have become, we will remain trapped in a cycle of crisis — one that fuels wars, social unrest, poverty, hunger, and environmental destruction. Perhaps the moment has come to reset the economic system and base it on the principles of justice and the fair sharing of resources. The time has come for the sharing economy.

Sources:

· Meditations on the Sharing Economy

· U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

· International Monetary Fund (IMF) – World Economic Outlook

· Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

· Wikipedia: United States bear market of 2007–2009

· Wikipedia: 2020 stock market crash

· MarketWatch: Will the stock market tumble back to its coronavirus lows?

· Yahoo Finance: Dow Jones Industrial Average Historical Data