This paper questions whether the credit crunch of 2007 and subsequent global recession represent a crisis of neoliberalism. The first section argues that neoliberalism has been a political project of the ruling classes, rather than just a blueprint for effective economic management. The second section then outlines the importance of money and credit in capitalism, especially the role of the state. The third section then examines in more detail the prospects for regulatory reform of the financial sector, criticising the widely-held view that finance has become detached from the ‘real economy’. It is argued that even extensive financial re-regulation will not effectively challenge the inequalities of wealth and power in global capitalism. The final section presents a socialist alternative which focuses instead on the sphere of production, opening up what Marx termed the ‘hidden abode’ where the rule of capital is constituted through wage-labour.