“What did Marx mean by the contradictions of capitalism?” asks Samuel Brittan, the right-wing economist writing in the Financial Times. “Basically, that the system produced an ever-expanding flow of goods and services, which an impoverished proletarianised population could not afford to buy. Some 20 years ago, following the crumbling of the Soviet system, this would have seemed outmoded. But it needs another look, following the increase in the concentration of wealth and income.”

It is often said that central bankers 80 years ago were responsible for
creating the Great Depression. Constrained by their commitment to the
gold standard, they failed to ease monetary policy (cutting interest
rates) fast enough, say the economists, thus turning a crisis into a
Depression. But that is not the real reason.

A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of capitalist crisis.
Events are moving at lightning speed. This slow-motion train wreck has
suddenly speeded up.  Each day we come closer to a Greek default and its
exit from the euro. Squeezed by foreign bankers, demanding their pound
of flesh, ordinary Greek people are being pushed to the limit. They are
being reduced to a state of wretchedness and indignity.