This ideology in one form or another became dominant in economic and political circles around the world. Its supreme victory was proclaimed with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR. Its ascendancy corresponded to a rise in profits in the main centers of capitalist power between 1982 and 1997. The period of falling profits after 1997 was largely hidden from public awareness by the extraordinary credit bubble that private banks, businesses and governments did everything to encourage.

The economic collapse of 2007 to 2009 was followed by desperate attempts to make the working people of Europe and the United States suffer the consequences of a corporate and investment banking fiasco. Austerity measures reflect the fact that the wealth of the rich is secure and protected, while the real living standards of the majority take an ever-bigger hit.

As there is market panic and less liquidity, social stability all over the Western world, keeps crashing against exposed rocks. Thieving bankers, insane military adventures, criminal activities by global media corporations, tax avoidance by the wealthiest companies, abuses at the center of political power, incompetence at the tops of the police and judiciary, and a pervasive stench of corruption fill the air.

It is small wonder that a single incident in London – an unexplained police killing – is followed by widespread riots and unrest. The acrid stench of burning buildings is the explosive and contagious response of a youthful underclass that is utterly and completely alienated by the institutions and practices of modern capitalist democracy.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/node_7084903.htm

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