Situates the current crisis in the historical trajectory of the capitalist world-system, showing how the crisis was made possible not only by neoliberal financial reforms but by a massive turn away from manufacturing things of value towards seeking profit from financial exchange and credit. Much more basic than the result of a few financial traders cheating the system, this is a potential historical turning point. In original essays, the contributors establish why the system was ripe for crisis of the past, and yet why this meltdown was different. The volume concludes by asking whether as deep as the crisis is, it may contain seeds of a new global economy, what role the US will play, and whether China or other countries will rise to global leadership. The Possible Futures Series gathers together the great minds of social science to address the significance of the global economic crisis in a series of short, accessible books. Each volume takes on the past, present and future of this crisis, suggesting that the crisis has an informative history, that the consequences could be much more basic than stock declines, and that only fundamental changes – not fiscal band aids – can hold off future repetitions.