Description
Foster (sociology, U. of Oregon) and political writer Magdoff team up again, this time to document and analyze the ongoing meltdown of the US economy. The core of the study has been published in the Monthly Review, of which Foster is the editor. In brief, they describe an economy that has put all its eggs in monopoly-finance capital, resulting in the stagnation of production and the growth of financial bubbles that impact the real world when they burst. The solution they propose is to recognize the political part of political economics, and take public control over where and how money is generated and spent. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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In the fall of 2008, the United States was plunged into a financial crisis more severe than any since the Great Depression. As banks collapsed and the state scrambled to organize one of the largest transfers of wealth in history, many'including economists and financial experts'were shocked by the speed at which events unfolded.In this new book, John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff offer a bold analysis of the financial meltdown, how it developed, and the implications for the future. They examine the specifics of the housing bubble and the credit crunch as well as situate current events within a broader crisis of monopoly-finance capitalism'one that has been gestating for several decades. It is the "real" productive economy’s tendency toward stagnation, they argue, that creates a need for capital to find ways to profitably invest its surplus. But rather than invest in socially useful projects that would benefit the vast majority, capital has constructed a financialized "casino" economy that neglects social needs and, as has become increasingly clear, is fatally unstable. Written over a two-year period immediately prior to the onset of the crisis, this timely and illuminating book is necessary reading for all those who wish to understand the current situation, how we got here, and where we are heading.
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