Synopses & Reviews
The financial and economic collapse that began in the United States in 2008 and spread to the rest of the world continues to burden the global economy. David Kotz, who was one of the few academic economists to predict it, argues that the ongoing economic crisis is not simply the aftermath of financial panic and an unusually severe recession but instead is a structural crisis of neoliberal, or free-market, capitalism. Consequently, continuing stagnation cannot be resolved by policy measures alone. It requires major institutional restructuring.
Kotz analyzes the reasons for the rise of free-market ideas, policies, and institutions beginning around 1980. He shows how the neoliberal capitalism that resulted was able to produce a series of long although tepid economic expansions, punctuated by relatively brief recessions, as well as a low rate of inflation. This created the impression of a "Great Moderation." However, the very same factors that promoted long expansions and low inflation--growing inequality, an increasingly risk-seeking financial sector, and a series of large asset bubbles--were not only objectionable in themselves but also put the economy on an unsustainable trajectory. Kotz interprets the current push for austerity as an attempt to deepen and preserve neoliberal capitalism. However, both economic theory and history suggest that neither austerity measures nor other policy adjustments can bring another period of stable economic expansion. Kotz considers several possible directions of economic restructuring, concluding that significant economic change is likely in the years ahead.
Review
David Kotz gives an insightful and original account of the origins of the economic crisis. He attributes it to a massive upward redistribution of income. This in turn led to a surge in debt, financial crisis, and huge excess capacity. His outline of possible paths of recovery should give readers much to consider. Choice
Review
Here is the carefully researched backstory to how the heyday of right-wing economic policies came about, and why it is ending.
Kotz provides the most compelling explanation to date of how a coalition of U.S. business interests dismantled the institutions and norms that had underpinned the long period of shared growth from the end of the Second World War to the early 1970s. He goes on to show how the return to a more free-market version of capitalism allowed them to hold down wages and expand their wealth, while setting the U.S. economy on course for the financial shipwreck of 2008. This is a convincing account of a sorry chapter in the history of the U.S. economy, now coming to a close.
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
Review
Professor Kotz provides an instructive analysis of the neoliberal form of capitalism prevailing in the United States--its origins, its modus operandi, its critical weaknesses, and its future prospects. Particularly illuminating is his history of the U.S. economy, showing how successive institutional forms of capitalism have resulted in a crisis that can only be resolved through significant institutional change. Samuel Bowles, Santa Fe Institute and author of < i=""> Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution <>
Review
Kotz contrasts neoliberal capitalism (1979-2007) with its predecessor, regulated capitalism (1948-73), in order to explain the development of the financial crisis and subsequent recession that began in the U.S. in 2007, which he views as the greatest challenge for neoliberal capitalism to date. His neo-Marxian analysis is set within a historical treatment of U.S. political economy and offers a wealth of institutional comparisons and economic data in its discussion of the unique characteristics of the recent period... The goal of the book is to explain how neoliberal institutions gave rise to the financial crisis; while Kotz does not attempt to predict Western capitalism's next institutional form, he offers a number of reasonable and insightful considerations about its possible future directions. J. Gerber
Synopsis
The collapse that began in 2008 continues to burden the world economy. David Kotz, one of the few academic economists to predict it, argues that the ongoing crisis is not simply the aftermath of financial panic and severe recession but is a structural crisis of neoliberal capitalism whose resolution will require major institutional restructuring.
About the Author
David M. Kotz is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Distinguished Professor, School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst