Synopses & Reviews
The days of boom and bubble are over, and the time has come to understand the long-term economic reality. Although the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, hopes for a new phase of rapid economic expansion were quickly dashed. Instead, growth has been slow, unemployment has remained high, wages and benefits have seen little improvement, poverty has increased, and the trend toward more inequality of incomes and wealth has continued. It appears that the Great Recession has given way to a period of long-term anemic growth, which Foster and McChesney aptly term the Great Stagnation. This incisive and timely book traces the origins of economic stagnation and explains what it means for a clear understanding of our current situation. The authors point out that increasing monopolization of the economy—when a handful of large firms dominate one or several industries—leads to an over-abundance of capital and too few profitable investment opportunities, with economic stagnation as the result. Absent powerful stimuli to investment, such as historic innovations like the automobile or major government spending, modern capitalist economies have become increasingly dependent on the financial sector to realize profits. And while financialization may have provided a temporary respite from stagnation, it is a solution that cannot last indefinitely, as instability in financial markets over the last half-decade has made clear.
Review
"The authors carefully develop a powerful case that the normal state of 'really existing capitalist economies,' increasingly dominated by multinational megacorporations along with associated financialization, is not growth with occasional recession, but rather stagnation with occasional escapes that have diminishing prospects. Hence an 'endless crisis,' endless in both time and space, including China. And a crisis that is heading towards disaster unless there is a radical change of course. This valuable inquiry should be carefully studied and pondered, and should be taken as an incentive to action."-Noam Chomsky,
Review
"In the distinguished tradition of Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy, Foster and McChesney here combine grim analysis with bleak prognosis, reminding us that monopoly power disappeared from the textbooks but not from real life. This is a useful book for anyone raised on the reflexive American optimism of the post-war years."-James K. Galbraith, author of Inequality and Instability: A Study of the World Economy Just Before the Great Crisis,
Review
"Chilling in its analysis of the evolution of global capitalism and the contours of the global class struggle . . . you cannot but ask the question: 'When do we get serious about a strategy for the Left to respond to the system of modern day robber-barons that Foster and McChesney so well analyze?'"-Bill Fletcher, Jr., BlackCommentator.com; author of Solidarity Divided and 'They're Bankrupting us' And Twenty Other Myths about Unions,
Review
"A compelling discussion of the central economic reality of our time: that the Wall Street collapse and Great Recession of 2007-09 was a human calamity whose effects are ongoing. Foster and McChesney explore the underlying causes of the crisis as a result of the normal operations of capitalism in its contemporary neoliberal variant. Their discussions on financialization, monopoly power, imperialism, and other topics all provide opportunities for us to think more clearly about what is wrong with the societies we live in and how to advance a transformative political project in behalf of equality and social justice."-Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts-Amherst,
Review
"The most important book yet to appear on stagnation, the central problem of modern economic reality. Essential reading for serious liberal, heterodox, radical, and all open-minded economic thinkers."-Gar Alperovitz, author of America Beyond Capitalism, and Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland,
Review
Praise for The Rise of China: “Li has accomplished something different and very important. This is a book which explains much that seems a puzzle and challenges the received opinion of many analysts. It should be read by all concerned persons.”
Synopsis
The days of boom and bubble are over, and the time has come to understand the long-term economic reality. Although the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009, hopes for a new phase of rapid economic expansion were quickly dashed. Instead, growth has been slow, unemployment has remained high, wages and benefits have seen little improvement, poverty has increased, and the trend toward more inequality of incomes and wealth has continued. It appears that the Great Recession has given way to a period of long-term anemic growth, which Foster and McChesney aptly term the Great Stagnation. This incisive and timely book traces the origins of economic stagnation and explains what it means for a clear understanding of our current situation. The authors point out that increasing monopolization of the economy—when a handful of large firms dominate one or several industries—leads to an over-abundance of capital and too few profitable investment opportunities, with economic stagnation as the result. Absent powerful stimuli to investment, such as historic innovations like the automobile or major government spending, modern capitalist economies have become increasingly dependent on the financial sector to realize profits. And while financialization may have provided a temporary respite from stagnation, it is a solution that cannot last indefinitely, as instability in financial markets over the last half-decade has made clear.
Synopsis
Most discussions of the global financial crisis take the United States as their focus, both for analyzing what went wrong and for making plans to avoid similar mistakes in the future. But that may not be the case next time: as Minq Li argues convincingly in
China and the Twenty-first-Century Crisis, by the time of inevitable next crisis, China will likely be at the epicenter.
Li roots his argument in an analysis of the political and economic imbalances in China that would exacerbate a crisis, and possibly even precipitate a full collapse—and he shows in detail the reasons why that collapse could happen much more quickly than anyone imagines. Writing from a Marxist and ecologically oriented perspective, Li shows unequivocally that the limits to capitalism are fast approaching, and that events in China—essentially the last great frontier for capitalist expansion—are likely to be pivotal.
About the Author
John Bellamy Foster is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, author of
Marx's Ecology (Monthly Review Press, 1999) and
Ecology Against Capitalism (Monthly Review Press, 2001), and co-editor of
Monthly Review.
Robert W. McChesney is a professor in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Monthly Review Press), Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (New Press), Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media), and Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting (Oxford University Press).