A Catastrophe for Capitalism

Abstract

Given the utterly painful short-run chock of COVID-19 as well as the looming long-run threat of climate change, radical scholars suggest that the prevailing global economic system is flawed. Capitalism must be replaced by something else, but what? Klein discusses “Corona capitalism” and Chomsky dreams about an anarchistic economy. Piketty, Krugman and Stieglitz all call for major changes to American capitalism in particular. The fall in income will be dramatic for Western economies, but income constitutes the wealth of nations.