Understanding American Economic Decline

Essays by leading scholars present a novel and systematic analysis of the economic difficulties confronting the United States.

Michael A. Bernstein (Edited by), David E. Adler (Edited by), Robert Heilbroner (Foreword by)

9780521456791, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 July 1994

428 pages, 36 b/w illus. 22 tables
22.7 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.58 kg

"...the authors raise questions that are timely as a backdrop to the current debate over President Clinton's economic policy." The Washington Monthly

The public has long been painfully aware of the economy's stagnation. The contemporary recession has brought to the foreground problems which have been germinating for decades. Falling real wages, slow productivity growth, and the loss of international competitiveness in major industries all are outgrowths of long-term developments that predate this crisis. As the United States moves from a position of global economic leadership to one of economic interdependence, we need alternative approaches to explain the dramatic changes in the US economy. This collection of essays, written by leading scholars, presents a systematic analysis of the nation's economic woes. The authors furnish more than hard-hitting criticisms of the US economy. They provide hope as they offer solutions to America's most pressing economic problems.

Foreword: writing about the economic future Robert L. Heilbroner
Preface David E. Adler
Acknowledgements
Part I. Historical Perspectives: 1. Understanding American economic decline: the contours of the late-twentieth-century experience Michael A. Bernstein
2. Chickens home to roost: from prosperity to stagnation in the postwar US economy David M. Gordon
Part II. Institutional and Structural Perspectives: 3. Creating and extracting value: corporate investment behaviour and American economic performance William Lazonick
4. Financial institutions and contemporary economic performance Jane Knodell
5. Industries, trade and wages James K. Galbraith and Paulo Du Pin Calmon
6. A comparative analysis of the sources of America's relative economic decline Jeffrey A. Hart
Part III. Policy Perspectives: 7. Right-wing economics in the 1980s: the anatomy of failure David M. Gordon, Thomas E. Weisskopf and Samuel Bowles
8. The new economic stagnation and the contradictions of economic policy making Robert A. Blecker
Part IV. Social and Cultural Perspectives: 9. The changing contours of discrimination: race, gender and structural economic change M. V. Lee Badgett and Rhonda M. Williams
10. Troubled times: the cultural dimensions of economic decline Katherine S. Newman
Part V. Conclusion: 11. American economics and the American economy in the American century: doctrinal legacies and contemporary policy problems Michael A. Bernstein
List of contributors
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]