ABSTRACT
This chapter also considers developments of the 1980s but the focus is on the nature of the boom from 1982 unti11990 in the United States for two reasons. The United States is the most mature of the developed capitalist economies in the sense that the distribution of output and the structure of the technology have evolved to a state that other economies will likely achieve only after their income levels have risen further. Developments in the United States provide possible clues to future patterns of development elsewhere. Second, as argued in chapter 10, world recovery requires basic structural changes in the pluralist economies and recent events in the largest pluralist economy can also provide clues for structuring the required worldwide recovery program. As will be maintained, because of the special features of the boom of the 1980s, e.g. debt overhang, excess stock of housing and commercial real estate and revenuestrapped state and local governments, a return to low unemployment in the 1990s has been made more difficult.
