One particular index of the systemic nature of the current crisis is the weaknesses of
intellectual responses to the crisis and the inability, often self-confessed by orthodox
thinkers and policy makers, to offer convincing or viable remedies. Unsurprisingly, this
intellectual deficiency has primarily focused on the role of finance. But the intellectual
weaknesses—especially as far as policy responses are concerned—run deeper and
wider, covering (un)employment, industrial and housing policies, and so on. To a large
extent, this reflects the debilitating influence of neoliberalism (looking at things in terms
of a simple dichotomy between market and state, themselves simply conceived), the
compromises with it, and the corresponding weaknesses of alternatives on offer prior to
the crisis.