Exactly 90 years ago, in March 1919, faced with another economic crisis, Vladimir Lenin discussed the dire straits of contemporary capitalism. He was, however, unwilling to write an epitaph: "To believe that there is no way out of the present crisis for capitalism is an error." That particular expectation of Lenin's, unlike some he held, proved to be correct enough. Even though American and European markets got into further problems in the 1920s, followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, in the long haul after the end of the second world war, the market economy has been exceptionally dynamic, generating unprecedented expansion of the global economy over the past 60 years. Not any more, at least not right now. The global economic crisis began suddenly in the American autumn and is gathering speed at a frightening rate, and government attempts to stop it have had very little success despite unprecedented commitments of public funds.
整整90年前的1919年3月，正面對另一場經濟危機的弗拉基米爾?列寧(Vladimir Lenin)論述了當代資本主義所遭遇的困境。然而，他卻不情愿地寫下了這句結語：“那種認為資本主義無法擺脫當前危機的想法是錯誤的。”事實證明，與列寧所持的某些觀點不同，他的這個預期是相當正確的。盡管美國和歐洲市場在上世紀20年代遇到了更多問題，隨后是上世紀30年代的大蕭條(Great Depression)，可在二戰結束后的漫長時間里，市場經濟迸發出異乎尋常的活力，令全球經濟在過去60年出現了史無前例的擴張。但好景已不再，至少眼下是如此。去年秋季在美國突然爆發的全球經濟危機，正在以驚人的速度不斷加劇，盡管政府承諾動用規模空前的公共資金，其阻止危機的努力卻幾乎絲毫未見成功。