“Main Street and the 99 Percent Can Learn From This Book”
“The Restructuring of Capitalism in Our Time.” William K. Tabb; New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 276 pages plus references and index. ISBN 978-0-15842-8 (cloth, $35) and 978-0-231-52803-0 (electronic, $28).Read the review of “The Restructuring of Capitalism in Our Time” by Christopher Gunn in Review of Radical Political Economics:
Tabb draws on conceptual frameworks that he finds most appropriate to the tasks at hand. His broad historical perspective is shaped using a social structures of accumulation (SSA) approach. This helps him highlight what was different about the era of neoliberalism, one we are having trouble shedding. Failed or failing social structures of accumulation inevitably involve crises, and we continue to live with one of the worst of them in both the U.S. economy and the global economy. To the extent that neoliberalism worked as an
[…]accumulation regime in the United States it did so from approximately 1980 to 2000. The 2001 recession ended with a collapsing bubble in stocks, and more recently one began with the real estate bubble that imploded. Tabb explains each recent failure in light of attempts to keep the capitalist economy growing and profits flowing.
Too often economists write primarily for their peers, forgetting where the impetus for change is likely to originate. Main Street and the 99 percent can learn from this book, and use it to focus their work for change. The book would also be useful in the classroom, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Tabb’s many years as a teacher shine through, giving this book a wide potential audience.
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