Watching for Polanyi's double movement

Reuters / Stephen Hird

Political Economist Karl Polanyi argued that the rise of the capitalist economy implied another social order and that whenever markets attempted to free themselves from their social moorings, one could expect the "natural" (and violent) return of society. Michael Thomas thinks its coming soon:

As 2011 slithers to its end, none of the major problems that led to the crisis point three years ago have really been solved. Bank balance sheets still reek. Europe day by day becomes a financial black hole, with matter from the periphery being sucked toward the center until the vortex itself collapses. The Street and its ministries of propaganda have fallen back on a Big Lie as old as capitalism itself: that all that has gone wrong has been government’s fault. This time, however, I don’t think the argument that “Washington ate my homework” is going to work. This time, a firestorm is going to explode about the Street’s head—and about time, too.