Africa's integration imperative

So he would have been flabbergasted to see his prophecy realised, not by communism, but by the globalisation of Anglo-American economic liberalism. Opening up markets to the free flow of capital, not the dictatorship of the proletariat, has rendered state power obsolete.

Today's capital markets raise money for governments, corporate clients, and individual customers, manage pension funds' investments, and bet on the level of interest rates or the stock market. Trading in derivatives by investment banks, hedge funds, and other market participants, reaps huge profits for traders while depriving the real economy of productive investment and job creation.