>Has anyone read James Galbraith's new book *Inequality and Industrial >Change*, a collection of essays by Galbraith and a variety of >co-authors? Tom Ferguson gave me a copy of one of the chapters for >which he was co-author, "The American Wage Structure: 1920-1947", >which I thought was excellent. >
I would like to read it. One of the findings of Galbraith's work that I find important--though I have not been able to convince any Marxist whom I know here--is the centrality of US success in monopolizing key technologies and thereby earning monopoly rents in improving the American position in the world market (Ernest Mandel however may jumped on this finding given his interest in surplus profits and technological rents). For example, Brenner attributes the US turnaround to post Plaza dollar devaluation and wage repression. It seems to me that US control over technological monopolies (in software, high end chip business, medical equipment, etc) has been more important, and these industries can remain competitive with wages which are high relative to the national and world average and without steep currency devaluation. Rakesh
