Capitalism: An Unsustainable Future?

Malcolm Sawyer, Jonathan Michie, Malcolm Sawyer, Jonathan Michie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032211466
• eBook ISBN: 9781000552287
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

The four decades of neoliberalism, globalisation and financialisation have produced crises - financial and pandemic - and rising inequality. The climate emergency threatens the future of the planet. This book explores many dimensions of the background to these crises. There is the development of policy agendas to address the climate emergency. The rise in inequality is studied in terms of impacts of financialisation and the relationships between growth and inequality. The record of the neoliberal experiment in the USA is critically examined. The roles of financial institutions including public banks and micro-finance are explored, as is the need for improved financial oversight in the Economic and Monetary Union. The growth of global value chains has been a major aspect of globalisation, and the question is examined of whether such chains provide a ladder for development. Globalisation has also featured trade imbalances and large capital flows, and their causes and effects are examined with respect to China and South Africa respectively.

This volume will be of great value to students, scholars and professionals interested in political economy, economic thought, climate change, sustainability and business studies.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, International Review of Applied Economics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: The Future of Capitalism
• 1 Financialisation, industrial strategy and the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation
• 2 UK and other advanced economies productivity and income inequality
• 3 Financial oversight, the third flawed pillar of the European Union: the missing piece in the Arestis-Sawyer critique of EMU macropolicy design
• 4 The industrial policy requirements for a global climate stabilization project
• 5 Challenges to neo-liberalism in the United States
• 6 The U.S.–China trade imbalance and the theory of free trade: debunking the currency manipulation argument
• 7 Global value chains – a ladder for development?
• 8 The impact of capital flow reversal shocks in South Africa: a stock- and-flow-consistent analysis
• 9 Do public banks reduce monetary policy power? Evidence from Brazil based on state dependent local projections (2000–2018)
• 10 Some new insights on financialization and income inequality: evidence for the US economy, 1947–2013
• 11 Determinants of social outreach of microfinance institutions
• 12 Rethinking growth and inequality in the US: what is the role of measurement of GDP?
• 13 Sovereign currency and long-term interest rates
• 14 Government expenditure and economic growth: a post-Keynesian analysis
• 15 Interpreting the world, in various ways – and changing it
• Index