Stagflation and the Political Economy of Decadent Monopoly Capitalism

Abstract

The years since about 1950 have been the most persistently and pervasively expansive in the economic history of capitalism. The expansion manifested itself in all areas of economic activity: in per capita real consumption, most notably in the leading countries and in durables; in all aspects of real investment—all forms of construction and equipment, all areas of productive capacity; in technological change at all levels and in all sectors—product and technique, consumer and producer, industry, agriculture, and services, trivial and fundamental; in enormous increases in world investment and trade. In the major capitalist nations, the largest portion of these same years was one of equally unmatched social and political stability.

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