商品簡介
U.S. capitalism has long been viewed as first among competing economies in productivity, job creation, wealth, power, and individual freedom. But the recent deep recession has left many questioning America's future and the long-term viability of capitalism in general. Shocking events in the investment banking and lending sectors that led to the 2008 financial meltdown were soon followed by numerous government and Federal Reserve efforts to stabilize the economy. Yet Americans continue to suffer in the grip of massive home foreclosures, job losses, and political leaders at loggerheads about what should be done. These grave economic and political circumstances are the catalyst for a candid, sobering assessment of our social situation. And no one is better suited to perform this vital task than noted market watcher, Federal Reserve observer, and macroeconomist Robert H. Parks, who teas studied capitalism and its effects for decades and is convinced that in its unrestrained capitalism is rushing headlong toward its own demise.
A strong opponent of the supply-side, trickle-down economics that has been in vogue under conservative presidents, Parks argues that bottom-up stimulus and big government spending still have an important role to play in bringing greater prosperity to all US citizens. Citing the stellar examples of the financing of World War II, the use of fiscal and monetary tools to end the Great Depression, Social Security, and the G. L Bill, Parks advocates public works programs to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, improve our public school system, and other vital projects. To critics who object that deficit financing would be inflationary, he counters that the present inadequate system is already producing severe fluctuations in oil and food prices, even as housing prices continue to plunge.
Among the urgent problems that the federal government must tackle and that Parks sees as intimately connected to the long-standing influence of laissez-faire capitalism, he includes the need to curb societal violence through gun control, reduce the worldwide threat from nuclear proliferation by taking the lead in promoting disarmament measures, cleansing government of corruption from corporate influenceupeddling, expanding environmental protections, and, mast of all, dismantling the notorious "military, industrial, and big-oil complex" Parks identifies energy cartels and the armament industry as the "dangerous, and secret links of major industries to government officials, corporate executives, and military commanders." He contends that the loosely regulated manufacture of weapons together with the virtual monopoly over oil production and gas prices constitutes the greatest threat to the welfare, not only of capitalism, but also of global society in the future.
This is a stark yet compelling took at the current status and risky future of capitalism at its ugliest. Yet it is thoughtfully written with tremendous empathy for the pour, the unemployed, the exploited, the dispossessed, the uninsured, and all those who arc the victims of capitalism gone horribly awry. As an experienced economic forecaster who correctly predicted the "mini depression" of 1981-82. Parks's riveting critique of contemporary capitalism is spot-on and a clarion trail fir drastic change in our national agenda and polity making.
作者簡介
Robert H. Parks, PhD, is former professor of finance in the Department of Finance and Graduate Economics at the Lubin School of Business, Pace University, in New York City. He served as managing director and chief economist of Robert H. Parks & Associates, Inc., and for many years wrote the Monet, and Capital Markets Monitor for institutional investment officers, graduate students, faculty, and the press. He is the author of Unlocking the Secrets of Wall Street, among other works.
