The highly respected text, now updated with a substantial postscript reflecting on recent conditions in the US and global economy.

The US economy faced the prospect of a serious recession even prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The afflictions that had deepened under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush—wage stagnation, rising inequality, wildly inflated stock markets—sharpened further. The highly unstable conditions that Clinton handed Bush were hardly noticed amid the near-universal praise for the economic stewardship of Clinton and his supposed policy maestro, Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan.

Contours of Descent reveals how these variants of neo-liberal economics, which lavish favors on multinationals and capitalists while allowing living standards for ordinary people to fall, operate in the US and less developed countries, and explores policies for economic growth with increased equality.