Gaza, Israel and Ukraine are rocked by bombs and rockets. Tensions rise between China and the West. Africa has unlocked a new wave of violence. The world appears adrift, yet the guiding pilots that are the West’s senior politicians lack conviction, direction and confidence.

Future historians may argue that the instability that spread like fire across the globe in the third decade of the 21st century had its roots in the financial crisis of 2008. That certainly seems so to many observers. The crash was the end of the West’s post-Second World War leadership of the planet. Capitalism’s status as the winner of the Cold War vanished with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Capitalism survived to fight another day. The system........

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