Karl Marx and the world financial crisis: Bernd Debusmann

Both in the United States and in Europe, officials have stressed that government intervention in the banks will be temporary but whether they will be able to stuff that genie back into the bottle remains to be seen. And "temporary" has not been defined.

"We will not stand down until we have achieved our goal of repairing and reforming our financial system and thereby restoring prosperity to our economy," said Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Amid the gloom and anxiety of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, which started in the United States in 1929 and then spread to the rest of the world, there are hopes that Capitalism 2.0 (if it ever comes about) will result in a more equal society. "There is a tremendous opportunity now to narrow the income gap," says Sam Pizzigati of the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank.

That gap resembles the top-to-bottom income distribution just before the Great Depression, according to the Washington Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Then as now, the top 1 percent of households accounted for around one fifth of the national income. In 1980, their share was 8 percent.

History shows that deep financial crises have helped spur public policy reforms and those pending include legislation that would make it easier for American workers to join labor unions. At present, 7.5 percent of private sector workers are union members, the lowest percentage in the industrialized world.

U.S. unions say they are close to reaching a goal of collecting, by election day, one million signatures supporting the legislation. If passed, it would be part of what some have already started calling the new world financial order.

(You can contact the author at Debusmann@Reuters.com)

(Editing by Kieran Murray)