Paul Sweezy

Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 - February 27 2004) was a Marxian economist and a founding editor of the magazine Monthly Review.

Monopoly Capital

In 1966, Sweezy published Monopoly Capital (ISBN 0853450730) with Paul Baran. The book set forth the idea of stagnation theory, also called secular stagnation. The main dilemma modern capitalism would face, they argued, would be how to sell the economic surpluses created by capital accumulation. Increases in marketing, defence spending and various forms of debt would tend to alleviate the falling rate of profit foreseen by Marx. However, they believed that these remedies to capital's difficulties were inherently limited and that monopoly capital would tend toward economic stagnation. This book is the cornerstone of Sweezy's contribution to Marxian economics.

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