"This volume analyses contemporary capitalism and its crises based on a theory of capitalist evolution known as the social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory. It applies this theory to explain the severe financial and economic crisis that broke out in 2008 and the kind of changes required to...

The centrality of finance -- Financialization and social structures of accumulation -- Realism in financial economics -- The shadow of the financial system -- The coming apart -- Rescue and the limits of reform -- Nations, globalization, and financialization -- The present in history

Why has capitalism produced economic growth that so vastly dwarfs the growth record of other economic systems, past and present? Why have living standards in countries from America to Germany to Japan risen exponentially over the past century? William Baumol rejects the conventional view that...