"A few years ago," wrote financial reporter Ann Crittenden in the New York Times of February 4, 1979, "an aggressive group of less developed countries began demanding a new economic order. What they wanted was some formal restructuring to give poorer nations a bigger slice of the pie. This implied that world leaders had some rational control over events. It is now apparent that the old order is indeed crumbling—but amid such disorientation that the world is confronted not with a new order but a new global disorder."This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.