Description

Should we be more concerned that collapsing share values and widespread corporate failure and fraud beg some serious questions about the viability of the present world economy? Harry Shutt persuasively demonstrates that the present crisis is the culmination of 30 years of deepening stagnation. Faced with a long-term trend of reduced demand for both capital and labor the world economy has only avoided a vast recession through growing reliance on official subsidy and market distortion. Shutt points out that regulatory reform can only work by limiting profitability but that a more sustainable model is unacceptable to ruling elites. He outlines an agenda for fundamental changes, based on the premise that the primacy of private profit is no longer compatible with the priorities of modern democracies.