According to Peter Gowan, the US fashioned a postwar international capitalist order that exhibited extraordinary stability for many decades. That order has been in crisis for many years. What happened to US primacy, and why? In what ways has the US tried to restore its hegemony, and what obstacles has it encountered? Gowan talks about the evolving relationships among advanced capitalist nations.

What's unprecedented about the current economic meltdown? Can national governments effectively address the crisis, or are people's movements a better source of ideas? And why should the situation of workers in China matter to people everywhere? Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, co-directors of the Global Labor Strategies project, share their ideas.

In David McNally's analysis of the nature and causes of the ongoing economic crisis, he highlights, among other things, the volatility of money, the uses and abuses of working-class debt, a post-1982 expansion in global capitalism, and the fateful financialization of the economy. Debt has played a significant role, McNally argues in a recent article, in disciplining workers and poor people both here and abroad.

What do the Israeli air strikes on Gaza have to do with the upcoming Israeli elections, with Egypt, and with Obama's impending accession to power? Beshara Doumani shares his analysis. And Leo Panitch contests the notion that the US intervenes abroad only in the interests of US elites.

How effective has the antiwar movement been in generating and propagating a moral critique of war? Rahul Mahajan contends that the Left has in large part failed to shape public opinion or affect public policy. And Leo Panitch comments on the financial crisis, US empire, and the state's role in neoliberal globalization.

Understanding the current economic crisis requires grasping the connections between interest rate policy, household debt levels, the securitization of mortgages, and financialization more generally. Robin Blackburn elucidates those connections and discusses the impact of the crisis on pensions.