Analysis of: Trump ‘plans to roll back’ some metal tariffs; NatWest hands bankers £495m bonus pot – business live
The Guardian | February 13, 2026
TL;DR
Big banks reward executives with record bonuses while central banks worldwide manipulate interest rates to manage capitalist crises. The ruling class coordinates globally to protect profits while workers face inflation, job cuts, and AI-driven displacement.
Analytical Focus:Class Analysis Material Conditions Contradictions
This business news roundup reveals the stark class dimensions of contemporary capitalism through several interconnected stories. At NatWest, CEO Paul Thwaite's £6.6m compensation package—the highest since Fred Goodwin's pre-2008 crisis payouts—arrives alongside a £495m bonus pool for executives, just years after the bank required a £45bn public bailout. The timing is significant: this return to pre-crisis executive pay levels occurs while the Bank of England maintains 'restrictive' monetary policy that constrains workers' wages and employment. The material conditions underlying these developments reveal capitalism's fundamental contradictions. Central banks in both Britain and Russia are manipulating interest rates to manage inflation and economic stagnation—problems created by the system itself. Meanwhile, AI disruption is reshaping labor markets, with trucking and logistics workers facing displacement as new technologies promise to scale operations 'without having to increase headcount.' The Trump administration's potential tariff rollback exposes another contradiction: protectionist policies designed to benefit certain capitalist factions end up 'hurting consumers by raising prices.' The Epstein revelations forcing out executives at Goldman Sachs and DP World illustrate how ruling class networks operate across borders, while also showing the contradictions within that class. The Taiwan trade deal, framed as advancing 'national security,' primarily serves to secure semiconductor supply chains and facilitate $250 billion in capital flows—demonstrating how geopolitical maneuvering serves corporate accumulation. Throughout, the media framing naturalizes these dynamics as neutral 'business news' rather than documenting the ongoing class struggle.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Bank executives (CEO Paul Thwaite, Fred Goodwin), Financial sector workers receiving bonuses, Central bankers (Huw Pill, Bank of England), Industrial workers facing AI displacement, Consumers bearing tariff costs, Ruling class networks (Epstein connections), Logistics and trucking workers, Taiwanese and US capitalists
Beneficiaries: Bank executives receiving record compensation, Shareholders receiving dividends and buybacks, AI technology firms like Algorhythm, US semiconductor industry receiving $250bn investment, Financial sector employees in bonus pools
Harmed Parties: Workers displaced by AI in trucking and logistics, UK workers facing 'restrictive' monetary policy, Consumers paying inflated prices from tariffs, P&O workers fired and replaced with cheaper labor, Russian workers facing economic stagnation
The articles reveal a coordinated class power structure where central banks, corporate executives, and state actors align to protect capital accumulation. Central banks maintain 'restrictive' monetary policy ostensibly to control inflation but effectively disciplining labor. Executive compensation decisions are insulated from democratic accountability, justified through board governance that represents shareholder interests. The Epstein network revelations expose informal ruling class connections spanning finance, logistics, and legal professions across national borders.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Interest rate manipulation by central banks, AI-driven productivity gains displacing workers, Tariff policies affecting commodity prices, Financialization enabling record executive compensation, Global supply chain restructuring for semiconductors, Oil price fluctuations affecting Russian state revenue
The production relations revealed here show capital's ongoing efforts to extract more surplus value. AI technologies promise to 'scale freight volumes by 300-400% without increasing headcount'—a direct statement of replacing living labor with dead labor (technology). NatWest's acquisition of Evelyn Partners represents concentration of financial capital. The Taiwan deal secures production relations for semiconductor manufacturing, essential to contemporary accumulation. Throughout, workers remain subordinate: P&O's 2022 mass firing demonstrates capital's power over labor when profitability is threatened.
Resources at Stake: £495m in NatWest bonus allocations, $250bn in US-Taiwan investment flows, Control over global semiconductor supply chains, Access to credit and interest rate costs, Jobs in AI-disrupted sectors, Russian oil revenues and state fiscal capacity
Historical Context
Precedents: 2008 financial crisis and subsequent bailouts, Fred Goodwin's pre-crisis compensation scandal, Post-2008 banker bonus restrictions now lifted, P&O's 2022 mass worker replacement, Historical patterns of technological unemployment
This represents late neoliberalism's contradictions reaching acute form. The return to pre-2008 executive pay levels signals that the regulatory response to the financial crisis has been fully reversed—capital has successfully resisted structural reform. Central bank policy reveals the class character of monetary institutions: inflation control prioritizes protecting asset values over employment. The AI disruption follows historical patterns of technological change under capitalism, where productivity gains flow to capital rather than being shared with workers. Russia's economic difficulties demonstrate how sanctions and commodity price volatility expose the contradictions of peripheral integration into global capitalism.
Contradictions
Primary: The fundamental contradiction between social production and private appropriation: AI technologies that could reduce human toil instead threaten workers' livelihoods because productivity gains accrue to capital owners rather than workers.
Secondary: Tariffs designed to protect domestic industry hurt domestic consumers, Central bank policies meant to stabilize the economy create unemployment and wage suppression, Executive compensation depends on the same workers whose wages are being constrained, Ruling class networks (Epstein) create reputational vulnerabilities that destabilize individual capitals
These contradictions are intensifying rather than resolving. AI displacement will accelerate class polarization as fewer workers are needed to generate profits. Central bank policy is caught between inflation control and preventing recession. The tariff contradictions may lead to policy reversals but won't address underlying trade imbalances. The ruling class will likely continue managing these contradictions through state intervention, but the structural tensions between labor and capital remain unresolved and will likely generate increased social conflict.
Global Interconnections
These seemingly disparate stories reveal global capitalism's interconnected crisis management. Central banks in Britain and Russia face the same fundamental challenge: managing the contradiction between stimulating growth and controlling inflation without triggering working-class resistance. The US-Taiwan semiconductor deal shows how geopolitical competition between major powers shapes production relations globally—'national security' serves as ideological cover for securing supply chains essential to accumulation. The Epstein network's reach across Goldman Sachs and DP World (spanning US finance, Dubai logistics, and UK ports) demonstrates how the capitalist class operates transnationally while workers remain organized primarily at national levels. AI disruption in trucking echoes across borders as the same technologies threaten workers in multiple countries simultaneously. The material base—globalized production, financialized accumulation, technological displacement—generates superstructural responses (tariff policy, monetary policy, trade deals) that serve capital's interests while being presented as neutral governance.
Conclusion
This collection of business news reveals capitalism's contradictions sharpening across multiple fronts. Workers face a coordinated assault: AI threatens employment, central banks suppress wages through 'restrictive' policy, and executive compensation soars while workers are told to accept discipline. The ruling class demonstrates remarkable coordination—through central bank policy, trade deals, and informal networks—while workers remain fragmented. However, these same contradictions create openings: AI displacement may generate new forms of working-class consciousness as the technology that enriches few threatens many. The key task is building working-class organization that can match capital's international coordination, transforming defensive struggles against job losses and wage suppression into offensive demands for democratic control over technology, production, and the distribution of society's wealth.
Suggested Reading
- Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx (1849) Marx's foundational text explains how wages, labor, and capital relate—essential for understanding why productivity gains from AI flow to executives rather than workers.
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's analysis of finance capital and its global reach illuminates the transnational ruling class networks visible in the Epstein connections and US-Taiwan trade dynamics.
- The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein (2007) Klein's examination of how crises are exploited to advance capitalist interests helps explain how the 2008 crisis temporarily constrained executive pay, only for those limits to be reversed once the crisis passed.