The crisis of capitalism is five years old, yet it took until Tuesday's Guardian for its prime cause to emerge. The answer, clearly, lies in how early chief executives get up. Some of the world's top managers claimed they rose at 5.45am, "5am, sometimes earlier" and – suspect in its vagueness – "usually early". How do these industrial titans spend their sleep dividends? They hit either email or the gym. Marx was wrong: capitalism did not die of its internal contradictions, but because the people running the show are knackered, and pointlessly busy. Goya could not have a painted a more gruesome hell than a FTSE chieftain going full pelt on a cross-trainer – one eye on CNBC, the other on his iPad. We've seen sleepless power before: think Thatcher at her cockiest, Brown at his weakest. Their bad decisions arose partly because they didn't get a full eight hours' kip. So, Mr AOL and Ms Mediacom, give yourselves (and us) a break: hit that snooze button.