This was partly due to institutional
7 saving(pension funds) partly to
high incomes of the middle class,
increased markedly over a long period./As has been argued
above this tends to depress profits, and this effect is
at least partly offset by government deficits: The saving
of the rentiers finds its counterpart in the government
budget deficit.The budget has to absorb what business does
not wish to borrow. This is the enforced indebtedness
■>
discussed further above. The weight of the rentiers interest
in the councils of governments has generally been high
and some governments have pampered them with subsidies
(promotion of savings) and inadequately taxed them.
These interests have been at the head of the reaction against
inflation and against full employment. Thpey are allied
to the banks*These interests triumphed in the 1980s with
the victory of monetarism which brought about the high
interest rates which weighed heavily on the debtors
including governments of the developped countries
whose rangejof action with regard to employment policies
was thus severely curtailed.
Another feature of the post-war period was internationalisation
of trade, capital movements, enterprise. The liberalisation
of trade introduced a new force of competition,
also because it increased the speed of diffusion of technical
progres^This alone makes it difficult to believe that
concentration of businees-which no doubt happendd~
had increased the profit margins at normal rates of utilisation
In a sense the liberalisation was linked to the hegemony
of the U.S. which assured economic cooperation in the western
world. It involved the dollar as the basis of the