Kathmandu, Dec. 1 -- As stock markets hit record highs, rising financial fragility is setting off alarm bells across the United States and Europe. The International Monetary Fund has recently echoed these concerns, stoking fears of a looming crisis.

The warning signs are everywhere - and they are disturbingly familiar. Asset prices are climbing well beyond what can be justified by underlying fundamentals, while non-bank financial intermediaries now play a similar role to that of "shadow banks" in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. At the same time, the rise of stablecoins has pulled regulated banks into the opaque world of cryptocurrencies, and vast sums of speculative capital are flooding into AI stocks, driven more by h...