I think we need to understand what capitalism is.

I just visited a thread where OP declared that capitalism was dead in the US. When asked how he defined capitalism, he replied that it was a system involving voluntary trade between consenting individuals. Any economist would tell you that this is not exclusive to capitalism. Therefore it is not the defining characteristic of capitalism. Marxists, like me, would define capitalism as private ownership of the means of production. Does anyone have an issue with that definition?

Also, many people think that capitalism and free-market (Laissez-faire) capitalism are interchangeable. This is false. Capitalism, much like communism, is an umbrella term that groups those specific variations (Laissez-faire, crony, corporatism etc).