This multidisciplinary book looks at the long-term forces that are shaping the most important economic institutions in the US in the coming decades. The style is lively and clear, with a series of appendices focusing on technical issues of interest to specialists. The author foresees a declining rate of growth, a widening of the inequalities of income, and an increasing share of individual markets taken by a small number of large corporations. Combined with declining social solidarity and trust in government, he foresees an ever harder edge to the way in which capitalism will function in the future. The economic role of government will decline in the fields of stabilization and regulation, but government expenditures will become higher due to the aging of the population. This provocative book looks at the US from a novel viewpoint and shows how many commonly accepted views of the US economy need to be revised.
