Doug, I think this paragraph pretty much epitomizes our differences on these questions. You tend to view what's going on in Asia as capitalism functioning "normally" as if a depression is some kind of bowel movement that the economic body needs to exercise in order to keep in tune. This is exactly the way that the Economist or Forbes would look at it.
I have been trying to emphasize how recent events confirm the inability of capitalism to function "normally". Shocks to the system such as the Koreans are going through do not lead to a cheery outlook of "What a nice bowel movement." They instead lead Hyundai workers to make molotov cocktails and stack new cars in front of their plant to defend a sit-in. When this even occurred, you exhibited consternation. Instead, Marxists should welcome signs of resistance. It is out of such resistance that a new society becomes objectively possible. The role of Marxists or radical economists is to prepare the rest of society for accepting the need for a new kind of society, not to accept the status quo as a state of normality.
Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)