> Is there another
> economic model beyond capitalism, apart from socialism (which seems to
> lag behind its tormentor)?
Socialism can only exist globally. The Eastern bloc was autarkic accumulation on an international scale; it did have certain socialist features, just like Wall Street neoliberalism, in practice, is based on covert socialisms (bailouts, regulation, central bankers who plan, etc.).
> Has capitalism absorbed the socialist
> critique to the degree that the socialist critique no longer matters
> outside academic circles?
Critique takes as many forms as the division of labor will allow: aesthetic, micropolitical, cultural, legislative, juridical, etc. There's plenty of resistance out there, inside and outside of the institutions; part of resisting capital means training outselves to tap into these resistances, seeing the whole picture, and not what the media culture wants to retail to us.
-- Dennis