Rising US income and wealth inequality results from repression of real wage growth and production realignments benefitting the top one percent of households. Middle class wage-earning households have been hurt. Wage repression has led to slow inflation and low interest rates that sparked capital gains for the top one percent.
The book presents a compelling argument for the establishment of an international organization aimed at creating a more stable and sustainable global financial system. It explores the current vulnerabilities in financial structures and emphasizes the need for coordinated efforts to address systemic risks. Through detailed analysis, the author advocates for reforms that can enhance economic resilience and promote equitable growth worldwide.
With close attention to the history and institutional realities of the region, The Market Meets Its Match explains the failure of the simplistic market medicine administered in the first five years of transition. Merely "getting the prices right"--Lowering wages and raising interest rates and energy prices - won't improve competitiveness, the authors argue, as long as nonlabor costs such as the quality of goods, product design, outmoded technology, and inefficient distribution channels remain problems. Easing these bottlenecks requires long-term capital accumulation and profit maximization. The institutions necessary for such growth have not developed under Eastern Europe's new "pseudo-capitalism," as the authors demonstrate, and "pseudo-privatization," while distributing state property to citizens, has not provided them with the capital and technology they need to succeed.