The public has long been painfully aware of the economy's current stagnation. The contemporary recession has brought to the foreground problems which have been germinating for decades. This collection of essays, written by leading scholars, presents a systematic analysis of the nation's economic woes and offers policy solutions.

Foreword: writing about the economic future Robert L. Heilbroner; Preface David E. Adler; Acknowledgements; Part I. Historical Perspectives: 1. Understanding American economic decline: the contours of the late-twentieth-century experience Michael A. Bernstein; 2. Chickens home to roost: from prosperity to stagnation in the postwar US economy David M. Gordon; Part II. Institutional and Structural Perspectives: 3. Creating and extracting value: corporate investment behaviour and American economic performance William Lazonick; 4. Financial institutions and contemporary economic performance Jane Knodell; 5. Industries, trade and wages James K. Galbraith and Paulo Du Pin Calmon; 6. A comparative analysis of the sources of America's relative economic decline Jeffrey A. Hart; Part III. Policy Perspectives: 7. Right-wing economics in the 1980s: the anatomy of failure David M. Gordon, Thomas E. Weisskopf and Samuel Bowles; 8. The new economic stagnation and the contradictions of economic policy making Robert A. Blecker; Part IV. Social and Cultural Perspectives: 9. The changing contours of discrimination: race, gender and structural economic change M. V. Lee Badgett and Rhonda M. Williams; 10. Troubled times: the cultural dimensions of economic decline Katherine S. Newman; Part V. Conclusion: 11. American economics and the American economy in the American century: doctrinal legacies and contemporary policy problems Michael A. Bernstein; List of contributors; Index.

"This book of essays by leading scholars, principally economists, provides a splendid summary of the root causes of the late-twentieth-century economic decline of the United States." Stuart Bruchey, The Journal of American History