It has often been noted that the serious bourgeois analysts frequently arrive at the same conclusion as the Marxists, albeit with a slight delay. Some are suggesting what the Marxists have explained many times since the onset of the current crisis: that this is no ordinary period of recession, but that depression has become the new normality for the world economy. What we are witnessing is not a temporary phenomena, but an organic crisis of the capitalist system.

The gap between the haves and have nots is continuously increasing on a global scale. There is a transfer of wealth from the poorer countries to the richer on a scale never seen before in history. Within every country also, distribution of wealth is extremely unequal. Not every person in a rich country is rich, and similarly not every person in a poor country is automatically poor. Concentration of wealth in fewer hands is a common phenomenon in both scenarios.

George Osborne announced that the British economy “has turned the corner”. Cameron has chimed in to hail the new “recovery”. But after years of stagnation and falling living standards, who are they trying to kid? The economy is crawling on its belly and we are still being hit with mass unemployment and wage cuts. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks at the crisis-ridden state of capitalism in Britain and worldwide.