Issue #0

Contours of Descent: US Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity

U.S. economic fractures and the landscape of global austerity

Plot

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. Bushwage stagnation, rising inequality, and wildly inflated stock marketssharpened 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. This book shows how these variants of neoliberal economicswhich lavish favors on multinationals and capitalists while allowing living standards for ordinary people to falloperate in the US and less developed countries, and explores policies for economic growth with increased equality.