System failure

Not so long ago it would have been laughable to suggest that Marx might have been right in his assessment of capitalism as fatally flawed, such was the predominant economic system's apparent infallibility and power to generate growth and improvement in people's lives. But now, post-credit-crunch, he's being lauded for his prescience, which is all the more extraordinary when you consider that capitalism was nowhere near as entrenched and developed in his day as it is now. Serious political philosopher and theorist though he was, I think we can permit him a smug "I told you so" from beyond the grave.

It's a welcome consequence of the international financial crisis that there's a new-found mood of scepticism towards the economic truisms of the past few centuries. Capitalism may not be in its death throes, but it's in urgent need of surgery.