Why the recession isn’t all bad news for the U.S
For many, the economic crisis has become a sign of the sickness of American capitalism. Perhaps even the end of America’s leadership in the capitalist world. Hardly. Looking at long arc of history, major financial crises and panics have actually helped consolidate and strengthen the powers that be. The hardest hit are inevitably the emerging markets that are least able to weather the storm, not the core capitalist economies. Consider the long string of financial meltdowns since the Great Depression (from the oil crises to the dot-com bust)—none of them have halted the upwards march of global capitalism. They might even have helped it.