• ISBN13: 9780745329987
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: Economics
• Publisher: Pluto
• Publisher Imprint: Pluto
• Publication Date: January 1, 2010
• Pages: 340
• Original Price: GBP 25.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 567 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): Political Economy and Public Policy / Economic Policy

The US is still in deep trouble. Banks are sustained by trillions of government dollars, unemployment is approaching 25 million and the long-term future of the economy is in doubt. In Epic Recession, Jack Rasmus shows that we need a new way of understanding the crisis if things are to improve.

Rasmus interrogates US economic history to show that the current predicament is what he terms an 'Epic Recession', neither a full-blown depression or a short-lived period of contraction followed by a swift return to growth. He then shows that the only way to prevent the onset of depression is to radically restructure the economy through a massive job creation program, nationalisations, a fundamentally new kind of banking structure and a long-term redistribution of income through better healthcare and benefit systems.

Epic Recession provides a rallying point for trade unionists and concerned citizens who want to ensure that any recovery is felt further than Wall street.

Jack Rasmus is a Professor of Economics at St Marys College and Santa Clara University, both in California. He is a freelance economics journalist and author of Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression (Pluto, 2010). He has been a business economist, market analyst and vice-president of the National Writers Union.