About the Book

We are told, day in and day out, that there is only one way forward for the world: globalized free market capitalism. Yet more and more people know, as Harry Shutt points out, that this way lacks all vision for the future of humanity, is empty of social responsibility and environmental care, and will not, he argues, even deliver a stable economy or secure political future.

Harry Shutt gives us a trenchant mix of powerful critique and concrete political hope. He shows why the late 20th century‘s version of laisser faire capitalism is inherently unstable and heading for breakdown. And why the neo-imperial international political order, dominated by the US, is likely to follow suit. His real contribution, however, is to give us practical ideas for overcoming the crisis of underdevelopment and poverty in the Third World; replacing the ‘free‘ market with a system that limits profit maximisation, curbs the power of big money, and introduces an element of rational planning - replacing globalisation with genuinely democratic and socially responsible institutions.

Here is a message of hope, a contribution to a new political agenda, and the intellectual ideas to support it.

About the Author

Harry Shutt

Contents

Contents
Introduction: Breakdown of the World Order
1. The Waning of Imperialism
2. Capitalist Crisis and the Threat to US Hegemony
3. Corporate Interests vs. the Public Interest
4. The World Trade System: A Study in the Failure of Globalization
5. The Crisis of Underdevelopment: Searching for a New Model
6. In Place of the ‘Free‘ Market
7. The Transition to Supranationalism
8. The Path to Democracy

Commendations

"There is every reason to believe that the present economic downturn may yet prove the most cataclysmic ever, and that an unavoidable collapse is about to overake the global financial markets... Shutt has a compelling case... Circumstances are combining to make the collapse of our economic system more likely, and official policy is dedicated ‘never before to use the resources of the state to conceal or supress the symptoms of economic imbalance and market failure‘... Shutt argues for a restructuring of the international economic system to place more emphasis on cooperation rather than competition among nations... The idea that poverty can be solved by economic growth should no longer be admissable" - The New Statesman


Harry Shutt‘s The Trouble with Capitalism - What the Critics said

"Very stimulating…. Reads like an economics thriller" The Business Economist

"Identifies an impressive array of potential problems" The Christian Science Monitor

"One of the few to expose capitalism‘s lies and imperfections, faults that critically threaten our democratic survival into the next century" Publishers Weekly

"In this thoughtful treatment of the current economic scence, one feels convinced by the end that the collapse of Western civilization as we know it is at hand" Library Journal

"A timely book. Everyone who reads it will learn from it. It is based on wide knowledge and sharp analysis" Liberation

"Shutt [has] a message for every saver and investor: a crash of 1929 proportions is almost inevitable." The Guardian

"A powerful contribution to our understanding of the problems with finance-led economic globalisation…. Even proponents of the dominant economic system would do well to read this analysis." International Affairs

"The power and cogency of this work makes it a compelling and deeply disturbing book: well written, well researched and succinct" Chartist