Sandro Sideri
Former Professor of Intenational Economics
Institute of Social Studies
The Hague
The Netherlands

The frst section of the paper identifes the immediate causes of a crisis that is both severe and global. The second section examines the unsustainable imbalance that feeds the current crisis: more than two billion people under-consume and save, while a few hundred million borrow and live beyond their means. This imbalance rests on, and at the same time strengthens, the huge and often widening income gaps between, and within, countries, including the redistribution in favor of capital and highly skilled labor caused by globalization and technological change. The third section explores the efects of the crisis and the problems that it is creating, including those generated by the way in which it is being handled and the  “exit strategy” that will eventually be used.