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Contours
of Descent : US Economic Fractures and the Landscape
of Global Austerity |
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Author:
Robert Pollin |
Published
by: Verso Books |
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Click to Enlarge
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The US economy
faced the prospect of a serious recession even
prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The
afflictions that had deepened under both Bill
Clinton and George W. Bush: wage stagnation, rising
inequality and a wildly inflated stock market
sharpened further. The highly unstable conditions
that Clinton handed to Bush were hardly noticed
amid the near-universal praise for the economic
stewardship of Clinton and his supposed policy
maestro, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan.
In fact, US economic policy under both Clinton
and Bush with both |
relying heavily on the same Chairman Greenspan
are variants of neo-liberalism, which lavishes
favours on multinationals and capitalists while
allowing living standards for ordinary people
to fall. This book explores US economic fractures
and the landscape of global austerity. Building
from the growing movements for living wages and
against neo-liberalism, the book also explores
policies for economic growth with increased equality.
Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics and founding
Co-Director of the Political Economy Research
Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Among his many books are The Living Wage (with
Stephanie Luce) and the edited volume Transforming
the US Financial System (with Gary Dymski, Gerald
Epstein and M.E. Sharpe). He has worked with the
Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, the
United Nations Development Program, and was the
Economic Spokesperson for the 1992 Presidential
Campaign of Governor Jerry Brown. |
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May 21, 2003. |
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