The recent results for the banks have been claimed as evidence of a recovery in the economy as a whole. But the simple fact is that the banks are profiting at our expense thanks to the government bailouts writes Keith Spencer Read more...

Are we entering a third great depression, asks Richard Brenner? Read more...

In April, several militants were expelled from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in Tachira state (see info at end). This article from Workes Power's April issue pointed out that this was a possibility given that Chavez's March budget attacked the poorer sections of society rather than the bosses.

Hugo Chavez has nationalised more companies but also produced a budget that attacks workers. Venezuelan workers should demand anti-capitalist policies, writes Keith Spencer. Read more...

The world economic crisis has hit the car industry with real intensity over the last months. All the world’s major car companies have announced short time working, redundancies or closures. The largest car company and indeed largest multi-national for much of the twentieth century – General Motors — is in its death agony with increasingly desperate interventions of the US-government to just keep it alive. Read more...

The last quarter of 2008 saw a sharp contraction in economic output for the world’s major economies. It signals that the process of destroying excess capital is well underway, writes Luke Cooper. Read more...

The future looks bleak for the world economy as bailout plans fail and the crisis spreads to every corner of the globe. Read more...

Even looking back on them with a sense of perspective, the events in the autumn of 2008 remain remarkable. The world financial system faced outright collapse, central banks pumped in trillions to prop it up. Share and credit markets were infected with blind panic and banks were nationalised. The capitalist state had to step in to save capitalism from itself. Read more...

The budgest is the latest attempt by Brian Cowen's increasingly unpopular government backed by the Green Party to make Irish workers pay for the recession. Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan called for an extra 2 billion euro to be raised in taxes and 1 billion euro cuts in public spending to deal with the crisis in public finances. Read more...