Growth and crisis in post-war capitalism

For the first twenty-five years after World War II the developed capitalist countries experienced a remarkable period of steady economic growth, national incomes and productivity grew at a high rate, the scope of cyclical fluctuations was limited and unemployment was low. Towards the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s tensions began to emerge, and at the end of 1973 this led to a reces sion which lasted until 1975. Although this was followed by a period of moderate expansion until 1979, there was a further recession in 1979, which was itself followed by recession until 1982 and a further modest expansion. In this book the author examines the growth path of national income and productivity in the developed capitalist countries and seeks to understand the phenomena by means of critical analysis and where appropriate further development of the key explana tions to be found in the literature. He also puts forward proposals to alleviate the problems that have occurred in the last twenty years.