The Future of U.S. Capitalism

Description

This multidisciplinary book looks at the long-term forces that are shaping the most important economic institutions in the US in the coming decades. The style is lively and clear, with a series of appendices focusing on technical issues of interest to specialists. The author foresees a declining rate of growth, a widening of the inequalities of income, and an increasing share of individual markets taken by a small number of large corporations. Combined with declining social solidarity and trust in government, he foresees an ever harder edge to the way in which capitalism will function in the future. The economic role of government will decline in the fields of stabilization and regulation, but government expenditures will become higher due to the aging of the population. This provocative book looks at the US from a novel viewpoint and shows how many commonly accepted views of the US economy need to be revised.

'The book is a stimulating and well-organized version of some probable developments in United States capitalism between now and 2050. The method used by the author is modest, sober, and realistic. He is skeptical about 'futurology' and makes ample use of numerous forecasts made in days gone by to demonstrate how wrong they were. Within this cautiously constrained framework, he rejects what he regards as extreme views, such as the 'end of history' (i.e. unchanging US capitalism) or the 'end of capitalism' and seeks rather to outline the most probable changes within an American capitalist economy, which is still quite recognizable as a descendant from the present system. The book is superior to any other recent publication of which I am aware.' Chris Freeman, Emeritus, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex 'A very clear analysis ... The author maintains his statements with a huge number of charts, diagrams and a large bibliography, providing the interested reader with supplemental information. The book looks at the US from a novel viewpoint and leads to reviewing commonly accepted opinions on the US economy.' Kyklos