LONDON -- A decade ago, capitalism seemed almost totally triumphant. Its old enemy, communism, was discredited and in rapid retreat, global capital markets were beginning a phase of colossal expansion and countries everywhere were deregulating, opening their markets and unraveling their state sectors via privatization.
Today the scene is very different. Global capitalism is now not merely being blamed for failing to cure world poverty, it is being accused of worsening the divisions between rich and poor. Even within advanced economies it is being scorned for failing to overcome social exclusion. Meanwhile, critics now point to the great engines of capitalism that were once roaring ahead but are now spluttering -- with America in recession, key parts of Europe drifting and Japan at a total halt.
Worse still, it is evident that while the communist creed may have failed, other ideologies, notably religious fundamentalism, have risen up in its place, bringing renewed frenzies of anticapitalism and its concomitant, anti-Americanism.