London is burning. The violence and looting have spread to other English cities. Thieves outnumber police. The situation appears to be beyond control and its growth contagious.
Throughout the rest of the world, stock markets are tumbling at a rate not seen since the 2008 global financial crisis.
Are these two phenomena related? If so, what might their relationship say about where we are and where we are headed?
The violence and looting tells us that people are angry, and that in apparently affluent societies, the benefits are not shared in a satisfactory way. Riots throughout history have been driven by grievances which come down to basics: food, security, confidence about survival.
What is happening in London has not been contained to that city. And, I suspect, it won't be restricted to the UK. Unemployment in the US and many European countries is high and refuses to come down. Behind the unemployment figures hide people who are underemployed and others who have just given up looking for work.
This formula suggests the precedent in Britain could be just the beginning for people seeking a way to vent their frustrations.
The collapsing stock markets and the downgrading of the credit rating of the US tell us that the problem is only going to get worse. Investment capital is disappearing from markets, hidden, if it exists, in the deep pockets of terrified individuals and companies. These investors have suddenly seen their net worth collapse again for the second time in four years.
And what will be the effect? No new jobs created; people being made redundant because their companies can't afford to pay them; the government of the wealthiest nation on earth (the US) now virtually insolvent, and unable to stimulate an economy on whose prosperity so many others depend.
The result: more frustration among alienated people who see no future for themselves in societies where the financial gap between people is growing larger each day; riots driven by resentful people trying to settle scores they've wanted settled for a long while; crackdowns by governments whose legitimacy and control are threatened; misery and misfortune for any swept up in this whirlwind.
Trouble is ahead. There's no end in sight just yet to the stock tumble. And the frenetic energy of angry and frustrated people in Europe and the US is far from spent.
Apparently untroubled by this US/European collapse, Asian economies appear to be chuffing along at a great rate: high growth rates, export surpluses. China is the biggest holder of US currency. The sky is the limit as both the absolute and relative positions of Asian economies get stronger.
But not for long if US and European currencies decline, purchasing capacity reduces and banking strength is compromised. In such an interdependent world, what happens in Europe and the US will have an impact in Asia, probably sooner rather than later.
What will be the response? The reaction of governments, particularly in China and Vietnam, to the Arab Spring earlier this year is instructive. Non-democratic governments across Asia were terrified that what has been happening in North Africa and the Middle East might spread to Asia. That provoked heightened activity by the police and internal security officials.
The impact upon the Church will be significant.
In the first instance, if instability leads food shortages, medical needs or traumatised people, Church agencies will be involved in addressing these issues.
But the impact on the Church in some countries (China, Vietnam or Myanmar) might be sharper. Authoritarian governments across Asia see the Church as a threat — an independent community that can go its own way, relate to foreigners and, in the view of some, be the basis for sedition.
China has long been known to have a life of demonstrations and riots that rarely get reported. There are allegedly 20 to 40 million workers on the move around China all the time looking for work. The social instability and its impact on the economy are abiding concerns of the Chinese leadership and a constant force for many commentators on China's ballooning growth.
Such a period of instability could lay ahead if the European and US volatility endures. For Asia, the impact will be later but significant.
Fr Michael Kelly SJ is the executive director of UCA News, where this article first appeared.