The magnitude of the financial crisis is yet to be fully assessed. So far, the prevailing idea was that the banks had acted foolishly. Now there is plenty evidence that they acted in ways that deliberately violated the law:

Examiner: Lehman Torpedoed Lehman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703625304575115963009594440.html

You will notice that this is not a radical leftist website, but the mouth piece of capitalism itself: The Wall Street Journal, now with the new Murdoch flavour.

And the financial crisis was just the second step in the global recession!

Here in Australia, the recovery is starting to stall. The latest ABS figures on employment, so trumpeted by all mainstream journos and commentarists, contained the fabulous news that, seasonally adjusted, full time employment increased by 11,400 positions.

What most forgot to mention is that part-time employment decreased by 11,000…

Yes, that’s right, net gain: 400 new full-time jobs.

But our analysis concludes this is the logical result of the capitalist mode of production.

The article doesn’t actually say we were lucky. It says demand from China, cutting working hours, and the stimulus had some effect. But it has to be seen in the context of the global economy and the longer term tendency to economic downturns and economic depressions.

This crisis has just begun and they are trying to solve a problem by the same folly which created it.