Boeing’s 737 Max is a saga of capitalism gone awry

After a Boeing 737 Max jet plunged into the ocean off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, killing all 189 passengers and crew members aboard, Boeing quickly diagnosed the problem: faulty software. The company immediately promised to fix the code, reminded pilots how to handle a potential malfunction and insisted the Max was safe.

And yet, less than five months later, another 737 Max crashed, this time in Ethiopia. Once again, the new software — known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS — was identified as the culprit. With a total of 346 people now dead, the Max was grounded worldwide, plunging Boeing into its biggest crisis ever.