Frontiers of Political Economy

Transcending the arid formalism of present-day economic theory <i>Frontiers of Political Economy</i> develops a new and accessible perspective on the world economy. Guglielmo Carchedi identifies and analyses three key features of modern capitalism: the rapidly increasing share of human labour needed for the advancement of science and technology rather than for the production of goods; the global rather than national nature of production distribution and consumption; and the dominance of the oligopolies.This analysis enables Carchedi to explore new theoretical frontiers: from an original theory of mental and material labour to an investigation of the conditions under which mental labour produces value; from an assessment of the class structure of modern capitalism to an appraisal of the social content of science and technology; from an alternative account of crises inflation and stagflation to a study of their relation to the destruction of value and to arms production. He also cast fresh light on a number of basic contemporary issues—including the present financial and monetary crisis—and surveys the most important recent controversies in language accessible to non-specialists.Rigorous and wide-ranging but written with great lucidity <i>Frontiers of Political Economy</i> is an essential book for both specialists and students in economics and politics.