ABSTRACT
As we enter the seventh year of the continuing global capitalist crisis that began with the September 2008 financial meltdown on Wall Street and other centers of global capitalism, the prospects for a rapid recovery of the economies of the United States and Europe, as well as those integrated into the global capitalist system, appear to be dim. While stock markets across the globe have made a big turnaround over the past six years, from their lows in late 2008 and early 2009 to their pre-recession highs and beyond by mid 2014, unemployment rates have continued to remain near double-digit levels in most advanced capitalist economies, with depression-level rates in countries suffering from the sovereign debt crisis, such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The grim economic situation that has cast doubt over chances of a rapid recovery anytime soon, was made worse with the new wave of mortgage foreclosures that the banks unloaded in the past few years-a situation that has relegated the US and global economy into greater uncertainty.
