The crisis next time: the GFC and the continuing fragility of capitalism

Abstract

A decade after the global financial crisis of 2008-09, most OECD economies had still not regained normal economic and labour market conditions. Now the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the global economy into the worst crisis since the Great Depression. The advanced capitalist economies enter this crisis in an economically and politically precarious state: financial leverage and instability, fiscal imbalances, constraints on monetary policy, and household financial fragility are all worse than in 2008-09. Perhaps most worryingly, the legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic institutions and processes have been battered by a decade of hardship, polarization, and populism. In this worrying context, progressive movements must develop and fight for a response to this latest crisis that will strengthen popular economic and political capacities, instead of merely rescuing a battered, financialized regime.