The master of world-systems analysis gives an interview to Le Monde and writes his commentary The Depression: A Long-Term View on October 15. We have reached the last phase in the downturn of a Kondratieff cycle, when virtual decline becomes real: bubbles are bursting. The depression has started. Capitalism has come to its end, the present system cannot survive. It may take the form of a classic nominal deflation, with all its resulting negative consequences for ordinary people.

The underlying basis of the "big bang" of the financial-economic crisis is the structural crisis of the capitalist system: access to the natural resources around the globe is becoming restricted, thus sharpening the conflict between North and South. For the first time in history, this actually threatens the future of mankind and the Earth. The author also presents the main measures necessary to make the long transition from capitalism to socialism – a solution to this pressing problem.

László Andor-Péter Farkas (eds.): From Tax Heavens to Green Movements. Critical Lexicon on the Global Economy and Globalization. [Az adóparadicsomtól a zöldmozgalomig. Kritikai szócikkek a világgazdaságról és a globalizacióról] Napvilág, Budapest 2008.

China has opted – also officially – for building socialism the capitalist way. This decision is in line with the government plan to industrialise the country by opening it up to the world market. Thus, China's energy security activities can largely be explained in terms of the Chinese government's long-standing fear of foreign energy dependency, particularly China's reliance on energy resources controlled by the United States.

What were the decisive factors in the world economy that changed in the '80s, which had earlier supported the Soviet system but later contributed to its collapse? According to the author, the Russian oil industry had a large role in disintegrating the Soviet Union, thus showing how the long-term Kondratieff cycle affected the available development alternatives.