Nasser, Alan

The 'New Normal' : Persistent Austerity, Declining Democracy, and the Globalisation of Resistance

This book traces the origins of the current economic crisis, explains its emergence as a consequence of the rejection of Keynesian social democracy and 30 subsequent years of neoliberalism, details its precise nature, and projects its significance for the future of the US working population.Nasser argues that in the absence of organised popular resistance, the future of mature, industrial capitalism portends persistent austerity and increasingly authoritarian government for the working population. He charts the development of US capitalism since 1823, from the 19th-century system of fratricidal competition to the current post-New-Deal, post-Great-Society neoliberal financialised regime, characterised by lowered expectations and persistent austerity for a debt-indentured working class.The argument is developed as a historical narrative, going back to the beginnings of American capitalism. The current crisis is the most recent moment in a series of landmark crises and responses to crisis whose causal origins reveal the key structural and political vulnerabilities of capitalism and whose outcomes have been decisive in shaping the countours of post-crisis capitalism. The succession of these crises and responses cumulatively shaped the relevant features of the present moment.