Profitability and the Great Recession

Taylor & Francis

Profitability and the Great RecessionThe Role of Accumulation Trends in the Financial Crisis\nAuthor(s): Ascension Mejorado, Manuel Roman\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138242395, 978-1138242395\nSynopsis\nFrom the mid-1980s, investors in the US increasingly directed capital towards the financial sector at the expense of non-financial sectors, lured by the perception of higher profits. This flow of capital inflated asset prices, creating the stock market and housing bubbles which burst when the imbalance between stagnant incomes and rising debts triggered the banking meltdown. Profitability and the Great Recession analyses these trends in profitability and capital accumulation, which the authors identify as the root cause of the financial crisis, in the context of the US and other major OECD countries.\n\nDrawing on insights from Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, the authors interpret .