Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I: Roots of a system's crisis -- Part II: Economics of the crisis. Capitalism as a crisis-prone system -- The role of economic theory -- Markets and efficiency -- Wages, productivity, and exploitation -- Housing and debt -- Government intervention in the economy -- International dimensions of the crisis -- Part III: Politics of the crisis. Reforms and regulations as crisis solutions -- Debates over "socialist" solutions -- Anti-capitalist politics.

"Capitalism Hits the Fan differs sharply from most other explanations offered by politicians, media commentators, and academics. Step by step, Professor Wolff shows that deep economic structures - the relationship of wages to profits, of workers to boards of directors, and of debts to income - account for the crisis. Government bailout interventions have thrown too little money too late at a problem that requires more than money to solve. As this book shows, we must now ask basic questions about capitalism as a system that has now convulsed the world economy into two great depressions in 75 years (and countless lesser crises, recessions, and cycles in between). The book's essays engage the long-overdue public discussion about basic structural changes and systemic alternatives needed not only to fix today's broken economy but to prevent future crises."