Are we watching the death throes of Capitalism?

Communism collapsed in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union. Capitalism was right there to scoop up what was left and move in.

Capitalism went on a rampage for many years before imploding in 2008,  and collapsing under the weight of an unregulated financial system. Without any viable alternatives, capitalism was able to survive only because the federal government bailed them out with trillions of taxpayer dollars. It was a huge corporate welfare giveaway that kept the financial system and our economy from total collapse.

The true cost of that government bailout, according to the reporting team of Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry at Bloomberg News, was more than just the reported $700 billion g from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). According to the Bloomberg journalists, at one point in 2009, “the U.S. had lent, spent or guaranteed as much as $12.8 trillion to rescue the economy.”

From the PBS Need to Know Series: The True Cost of the Bank Bailout:

Capitalism has struggled onward the last couple of years, but clearly is in disarray. The financial turmoil of late, the greed of multinational corporations, and the futile efforts of pro-business governments in the U.S. and abroad to stem the damage, point to troubling times ahead. The future of capitalism does not look promising, except for those who know how to exploit it.