Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Is Capitalism still working?
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the American economy was in crisis after years of stagflation (Bill Gates was in jail about that time). Mortgage rates were 17%, business loans carried 20% interest rates and productivity had collapsed. On April 21, 1980, Time magazine ran a cover story that asked the question: "Is Capitalism Working?" Today, the crisis that the American economic system faces is greater than that during the darkest days of stagflation. In this opinion piece, George M. Taber, former business editor of Time magazine and author of the 1980 cover story, asks and answers the same question -- 29 years later.