As Wall Street tottered on the brink of collapse and the US government unveiled one the largest market interventions in its history, stakeholders from every side weighed in with incredibly stark views of the country’s economic future.

The assessments did not just focus on the country’s short-term economic health. Many believe this week’s events could drastically change the way the US does business.

“Capitalism as we knew it – free-market capitalism – seems to be dead,” declared Rob Cox, editor of financial website breakingviews.com.

The extent of the US government’s reach into the operations of private companies has been unprecedented. On Tuesday it took control of the world’s largest insurer, American International Group Inc. The week before it took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together guarantee nearly half of the $12-trillion US mortgage market.

If Congress approves the necessary legislation next week, the government could become the biggest player in the US financial sector, taking control of hundreds of billions of dollars in shaky mortgage-related assets that are at the centre of the credit crisis.

Some were calling it “socialized capitalism” and predicting a price tag for the taxpayer as high as $1 trillion , yet even typically free-market Republicans seemed to acknowledge there was little other choice.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl described the effects of Wall Street’s risk-taking as a “cancer” spreading across the wider economy, shutting down the availability of credit to the average consumer and making it unavoidable for the government to take over.

It marks a stark change from the support of deregulation and smaller government that has led economic policy over the last few decades in the US.

Read Complete Analysis of US Capitalism @ Economic Times