Saving capitalism from itself (3): Is there a way out?
As the financial crisis unfolds in the developed world and starts impacting in the developing countries, the question arises naturally: is this just one more cyclical crisis, even if an unusually nasty one, or is there something deeper wrong about the way the “system” is working? This is hardly a new question, as this has been asked as long as capitalism has existed as the dominant system, and cyclical crises have always been an inherent part of its way of functioning. The long period of relatively stable economic growth we have witnessed in the developed world since the mid eighties had led many to believe that serious crises were part of the past, arguing that globalisation paired with more sophisticated financial markets had diminished or even eliminated this cyclical tendency.