The phenomenon of capitalist overproduction happens periodically. Although a crisis of overproduction can't be stopped, the usual answer to it is to make credit more easily available. This can sometimes lessen the impact of the crisis, but it drives the problems deeper into the economy. That's because consumer debt is already high and corporate debt is even higher. Add onto this the record level of the U.S. trade deficit.
Japan is still in a recession and the European capitalist economies are sluggish.
So U.S. businesses won't be able to increase exports. This is a combination that could send the economy into an even deeper tailspin, of the kind that causes great social dislocation and political crisis. Layoffs and shutdowns are rampant in the high-tech industries. Every Internet company is cutting back and laying off. Only five of the top 280 Internet stocks are down less than 5 percent.