ABSTRACT
The aggregate economic indicators of the rise and fall of the world capitalist system are of limited value in understanding the causes, trajectory and impact of the world depression. The depression demonstrates with crystal clarity the pitfalls of imperial-centered globalization and the stark absence of any remedies for its collaborators in Latin America. The collapse of the Middle East 'rentier oligarchies' began with the frenzied commodity oil boom between 2004-2008, which heightened a construction and real estate boom, as well as the accumulation of debt and labor importation. The collapse of the stock market and the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars managed by Wall Street investment banks illustrate the pitfalls and dangers of free market capitalism which face the entire working population of the United States and, through the United States, the world.
