Pluto Press Overripe Economy: American Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy

From industrialisation to the present day, Overripe Economy is a genealogy of the emergence of a finance-ridden, authoritarian, austerity-plagued American capitalism. This panoramic political-economic history of the country, surveys the ruthlessly competitive capitalism of the nineteenth century, the maturation of industrial capitalism in the 1920s, the rise and fall of capitalism's Golden Age and the ensuing decline towards the modern era. Alan Nasser shows why the emergence of the persistent austerity of financialised neoliberal capitalism is the natural outcome of mature capitalism's evolution, revealing both the key structural and political vulnerabilities of capitalism itself and points towards the kind of system that can transcend it.At the centre of the argument, is capitalism's ultimatum: either a 'new normal' of persistent austerity, declining democracy and a privatised state, or a polity and economy characterised by an economic democracy that can ensure both higher wages and a shorter working week. Review 'Offering an original analysis of late stage capitalism, this work connects the many individual grievances generated by capitalism into a powerful indictment of a system mired in social dislocation and repression. Nasser provides a resounding case for a sweeping transformation and reorganization of society on a fully democratic socialist footing' Barry Finger, Editorial Member of New Politics About the Author Alan Nasser is professor emeritus of political economy and philosophy at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington.