The Trouble with Capitalism: An Enquiry into the Causes of Global Economic Failure, Second Edition

The recent collapse of the banking system and instability in the financial markets has dramatically shaken confidence in the global economic order. Is the current variant of 'free market' capitalism really sustainable? The Trouble With Capitalism - originally written, with remarkable prescience, in 1998 - anticipates such a development and explains the underlying economic fragility it has revealed. Rather than being merely a temporary blip in the march of capitalism, Shutt argues forcefully that the on-going crisis has arisen as a result of fundamental economic problems, stemming from the growing redundancy of both labour and capital since the 1970s. In doing so, he exposes the sham of the laissez faire prospectus, showing that state power and capital are increasingly being used to prop up capital while pretending that the aim is to roll back the frontiers of the state. The implications of the author's startling conclusion (re-examined in a new foreword) - that the maximisation of profit must cease to be the main basis for allocating resources - are profound.

The recent collapse of the banking system and instability in the financial markets has dramatically shaken confidence in the global economic order. Is the current variant of 'free market' capitalism really sustainable? The Trouble With Capitalism - originally written, with remarkable prescience, in 1998 - anticipates such a development and explains the underlying economic fragility it has revealed. Rather than being merely a temporary blip in the march of capitalism, Shutt argues forcefully that the on-going crisis has arisen as a result of fundamental economic problems, stemming from the growing redundancy of both labour and capital since the 1970s. In doing so, he exposes the sham of the laissez faire prospectus, showing that state power and capital are increasingly being used to prop up capital while pretending that the aim is to roll back the frontiers of the state.The implications of the author's startling conclusion (re-examined in a new foreword) - that the maximisation of profit must cease to be the main basis for allocating resources - are profound.

Recent Instability In Financial Markets Has Shaken The Idea That The Foundations Of The Global Economy Are Sound. This Book Forsakes The Criterions Of Both The Left And Liberal Economists To Examine The Actual Behaviour Of Economic Institutions. Foreword: Apocalypse Now? -- Introduction -- 1. The Origins Of Modern Capitalism: A Brief History To World War Ii -- 2. The Post-1945 Economic Dispensation In The West -- 3. The End Of The Boom And The Neo-classical Reaction -- 4. The Illusion Of Orthodoxy -- 5. Incurable Addiction To State Support -- 6. Globalisation And The Power Vacuum -- 7. Technological Nemesis -- 8. Coping With The Capital Glut -- 9. Wider Symptoms Of Disintegration: I -- The Wreckage Of Soviet Communism -- 10. Wider Symptoms Of Disintegration: Ii -- Third World Catastrophe -- 11. A Crisis Of Legitimacy -- 12. Can The Profits System Be Saved? -- 13. Political Paralysis -- 14. Essential Features Of A Sustainable World Order. Harry Shutt. Originally Published: London: Zed, 1998. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The global economic order is in crisis. Is 'free market' capitalism really sustainable? The Trouble With Capitalism -- originally written, with remarkable prescience, in 1998 -- explains the underlying fragility of the then booming global economy. No mere temporary blip in the onward march of capitalism, Shutt argues forcefully that the current crisis is the result of fundamental economic problems which first emerged in the 1970s. The laissez faire prospectus was a sham response, with state power and capital used to prop up capital in the name of rolling back the frontiers of the state. Looking to a world where profit maximization is no longer the sole basis for resource allocation, Shutt’s ideas are startling and cannot be ignored. Although capitalism is today generally recognised as the dominant economic system in the world, many people are scarcely aware that it has only attained this position relatively recently in human history.