‘Maybe they’ll see worse’: 2008 crisis expert names four risks that could bring down global financial system

Richard Bookstaber, a financial analyst and former hedge fund and US Treasury insider who wrote A Demon of Our Own Design, the book that foreshadowed the 2008 financial crisis, warns that today’s financial system is even more fragile. Private credit, AI-driven tech, stock concentration, and geopolitical tensions form a tightly linked network where shocks spread quickly. Unlike past crises, risks now arise from the physical world, energy, semiconductors, and supply chains, beyond the reach of traditional financial tools.