This is the first of the series of four collections of essays in which
Paul M. Sweezy and Harry Magdoff, the editors of Monthly Review,
chronicled, as it was taking place, the development of U.S. and global
capitalism from the end of its golden age in the late 1960s to the full
onset of the financial explosion of the early 1990s and after. With
exceptional clarity, the authors explain basic economic principles and
bring them to life with concrete examples drawn from the daily workings
of the corporations and the financial markets, and the international
monetary system.