The answer is not financial regulation but overthrowing capitalism

At last an article about economics that's easy to understand - by which I mean that even I can get it without too much effort. This is not to say that there is no place for complex articles: this site after all is doubtless visited by people who have a much better grasp of economics than do I. But I think the ICC has sometimes to consider the nature of it's audience, and it's increasing potential audience as the crisis heats up. What I'm thinking about here is the Verizon article which was put in the hands of striking workers, with the hope of a discussion about the role of the unions emerging from this. As the "how to intervene in the class struggle" thread reveals, elsewhere on this site, this went a bit wrong, as tbe workers were not at the stage where they could accept the ICC's analysis of the unions.

In fact I regard the Verizon article as excellent, both in it's analysis, insights, and the conclusions it draws for future actions by workers. But it's target audience is clearly not striking, possibly youngish workers, in the heat of a strike. For one thing it's too long, and it's also written in a genre (is that the right word?) not guaranteed to capture the attention of workers, who have a lot on their minds. I think this question - of how left communists communicate and intervene directly with workers is important and needs consideration. And I expect you consider it all the time!

I submit this humbly, knowing how stretched ICC forces are, and I hope I'm not going to be accused of elitism. I also realize that really this post belongs on the "how to intervene site" but here it is!

A very good article. Although I have some issues with certain formulations, such as "captialism is destined to disappear," (at what time scale?), this article does an excellent job refuting the various claims that capitalist states will find a real solution to the current crisis. Its pretty clear the entire system is only being kept aloft by states' willingness to continue to pretend that the system is workable, i.e. China's willingness to keep buying U.S. debt. Of course, as the politics surrounding the Eurozone crisis shows that willingness is receding. Curious as to what lessons the various Euro bourgeoisies' learned from the U.S. financial crisis? Many in the U.S. admitted that it was a mistake to let Lehman Brothers' fail, but nevertheless it seems that it was never written in stone that a deal would be reached to bail Greece out. Moreover, the deal that was reached, much larger than the U.S. TARP deal, would seem to be much worse off for the banks. They are taking a 50-50 haircut, whereas the U.S. banks got dollar for dollar. Is this a domestic political consideration?

What comes next? Alternating cylces of recession and inflation, as the article argues?