An unmatched account of the trajectory of the postwar global economy, up to the present day, that explains many of our current economic woes. Both a historian and an economist, Robert Brenner"s account is wide-ranging and powerful--uncovering the mechanisms behind both the postwar boom and the long downturn that followed it, Brenner shows how over-production and over-competition continue to engender instability and crisis. Wage repression, unequal development and high unemployment are shown to be direct results of the current global economic system, which the hi-tech and housing bubbles could only temporarily conceal.