Read By: L. J. Ganser

In this fascinating new history, Judith Stein argues that in order to
understand our current economic crisis, we need to look back to the
1970s and the end of the age of the factory - the era of postwar
liberalism, created by the New Deal, whose practices, high wages, and
regulated capital produced both robust economic growth and greater
income equality.

When high oil prices and economic competition from Japan and Germany
battered the American economy, new policies, both international and
domestic, became necessary. But war was waged against inflation, rather
than against unemployment, and the government promoted a balanced budget
instead of growth. This, says Stein, marked the beginning of the age
of finance and subsequent deregulation, free trade, low taxation, and
weak unions that has fostered inequality and now the worst recession
in 60 years.

Drawing on extensive archival research and covering the economic,
intellectual, political, and labor history of the decade, Stein provides
a wealth of information on the 1970s. She also shows that to restore
prosperity today, America needs a new model: more factories and fewer
financial houses.

Download File Size:391.26 MB

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