Lawrence E Mitchell

This valuable work is the fruit of enormous in-depth research. Occasionally it succumbs to the forest-and-trees problem, as is perhaps inevitable given the lack of a strong interpretive perspective. Though Mitchell presents abundant evidence supporting the view that the triumph of finance was a response to the stagnation and overaccumulation characteristic of monopoly capital pursuing surplus profit, he never acknowledges the existence of this school of thought and excludes its research from his bibliography. Veblen is the most radical thinker treated. Mitchell also ignores the problem of growing inequality of wealth and income in American society. His conclusion—that “we can alter [the economy]”—contradicts his use elsewhere of the term “plutocracy” and doesn't accord very well with the story he tells, in which efforts to restrain corporations are frustrated again and again.… (meer)