For the present edition four chapters have been added which form the
fourth 1 part at the end of the book . Entitled The triumph of
neoliberalism, the new partexplains how theimplementation worldwide
oftheneoliberal agenda paved the way for the present crisis. As a matter
of fact, the evidence provided in chapter 9 suggests that the present
crisis already began to build up in the mid-1970s. It is around 1975
that (real) US wages reached a peak-level they would never regain in f-
lowing decades. It was also around 1975 that the number of strikes began
to fall sharply. The mid-1970s also marked the beginning of a huge in ow
of immigrants (in large part of Hispanic origin) into the United States.
The in ated supply of labor depressed wages and this had the consequence
that consumption could be increased only by an unprecedented development
of credit. Perhaps the reader may think that to blame the prevailing
economic system for the unfolding depression is a fairly common and all
too easy temptation.