Capitalism's Crisis: Is There a Precedent?

Consider the following headlines:

*China Sees a Dollar Crisis; Says U.S. Policy Fails

HONG KONG, Dec. 24 -- Last week's devaluation of the American dollar and the re-alignment of world currencies was depicted in Peking today as a manifestation of the crisis of capitalism and the decline of "United States imperialist hegemony."*

-The New York Times

*Russia Calls Oil Crisis a Failure of Capitalism

Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko Thursday called the oil crisis more a failure of the capitalist system*

-The Los Angeles TImes

Can Capitalism Survive?

Increasingly, its supporters as well as its critics ask: Can capitalism survive?

-Time Magazine

Running in Blinkers

This election has been conducted without a vision of the future. It has been about the selection of a team to handle an immediate situation which the people have been told is a crisis although they have not been told very much about the exact nature or magnitude of that crisis. Out of this crisis, depending on the way it is handled and by whom, there could come an economic order and society markedly different...

-The UK Guardian

Black Revolt Against Capitalism "Inevitable"

Organized Revolution by blacks against the oppression of the capitalist system is inevitable.

-Daily Collegian

The Economy: Next 25 Years; Forecasters See Radical Potential

The flocking instinct among economists in the winter of the year is compelling. Like birds, the country's top analysts cluster to arrive as if by instinct at a consensus about the shape of the year to come. And so it is for XXXX. The forecasters-who performed dismally last year and the year before-have decided that the economy will get worse before it gets better. But itwill get better by the end of XXXX, they say.

-The New York Times

The Crisis of Authority

This town is alive these days with free advice. It is a time of economic and political instability, with a new President and a new Congress, and while everybody is vaguely confused, suddenly the air is full of demands about what somebody else should do to set things right.

-The New York Times

Amid the constant assertions from various world leaders, as well as from the usual media sources, that somehow the "blue-eyed capitalist model" has failed, we decided to conduct a bit of research concerning whether or not a precedent existed for this sort of talk. The twist here, of course, is that every headline above was written between 1970 and 1980, a period of time in which the headlines were eerily similar to those of today.

Because there have been enormous flaws inherent in every system of economic development that has been implemented by humans since the invention of the wheel, we are choosing to refrain from the advocacy of any specific mode of economic production. The above articles have been provided for the edification of those who may be unaware that the Current Strife does, in fact, have precedent in modern history.

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