Capitalism is in crisis. And we cannot get out of it by carrying on as before | Michael Jacobs

Even capitalists agree our economic model is broken. Fundamental change on the scale of 1945 and 1979 is needed now

General elections are rarely epoch-defining events. Though the parties pretend that their political differences are large, in economic terms they rarely are. But this one could be different.

Of course, elections lead to change. Labour's victory in 1997 marked a decisive break with the Thatcher-Major years in terms of public spending and welfare policy. Yet New Labour didn't fundamentally challenge the dominant model of economic policy that it had inherited from the Tories: a globalised and declining manufacturing sector, and deregulated financial and labour markets. In 2010 the coalition brought in austerity. But Labour would have done so too, continuing the fiscal orthodoxy. Even at elections, economic policy is usually largely consensual.

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