The global financial crisis : system failure, great power rivalry and prospects for structural change

![CDATA[Unlike the previous economic crises of the past two decades which have occurred in Asia, Russia, Mexico and Argentina, the present crisis of capital occurred at the centre of the globalized economy: the United States of America. The financial crisis gripping the American heartland may indicate both the end of a global neo-liberal hegemony and the beginning of the end of the United States as the world’s dominant imperial power. The current financial crisis has structural origins, and it cannot be limited to massive bad loans, burst speculative bubbles or the virtual collapse of key banking and investment institutions in the United States and Europe (Bellamy Foster and Magdoff 2009; Petras 2007; Chakravarty 2008).]]