We have grown accustomed to the notions of the end of history and that the current variant of free market capitalism is the only game in town. But how sound are the foundations of the global economy? The remarkable analysis contained in this book forsakes the shibboleths of both the Left and liberal economists to examine the actual behavior--patterns and tendencies--of economic institutions in the OECD countries of the 1980s and 90s. The conclusions are disturbing. The author uncovers profound sources of instability. Low growth has become endemic. There is a chronic surplus of capital. New technology is not solving either of these problems or structural unemployment. Meanwhile, the pursuit of neo-liberal economic orthodoxy by an emasculated state has only worsened the situation and the evidence of social dislocation is all about us. This is a book that must be read by every politician and thinking citizen still harboring illusions about the capacity of mere shifts in policy to return us to the golden era of the Sixties when high growth and full employment were the norm.

Harry Shutt is a former Senior Research Consultant with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Tables * The Origins of Modern Capitalism: A Brief History to World War II * The Post-War Dispensation in the West * The End of the Boom and the Neo-Classical Reaction * The Illusion of Orthodoxy * Incurable Addiction to State Support * Globalization and the Power Vacuum * Technological Nemesis * Coping with the Capital Glut * Wider Symptoms of Disintegration I: The Wreckage of Soviet Communism * Wider Symptoms of Disintegration II: Third World Catastrophe * A Crisis of Legitimacy * Can the Profits System be Saved? * The Political Fallout * Essential Features of a Sustainable World Order * Notes * Bibliography * Index

Tables * The Origins of Modern Capitalism: A Brief History to World War II * The Post-War Dispensation in the West * The End of the Boom and the Neo-Classical Reaction * The Illusion of Orthodoxy * Incurable Addiction to State Support * Globalization and the Power Vacuum * Technological Nemesis * Coping with the Capital Glut * Wider Symptoms of Disintegration I: The Wreckage of Soviet Communism * Wider Symptoms of Disintegration II: Third World Catastrophe * A Crisis of Legitimacy * Can the Profits System be Saved? * The Political Fallout * Essential Features of a Sustainable World Order * Notes * Bibliography * Index