ABSTRACT
Steindl’s book, Maturity and Stagnation in American Capitalism, which explained the stagnation in US economic growth in the 1930s in terms of the rise of oligopoly in US industry, appeared in 1952.1 As Steindl (1976, p. ix) later noted, the timing of the publication of this book “could not have been less propitious for its success”. The advanced industrialized nations of the world embarked on a long phase of rapid growth, and stagnation was not the crying issue of the day.2 Moreover, despite the so-called “Keynesian revolution”, neoclassical economics increasingly came to dominate the economics profession, and few could be expected to take much notice of a Marx-inspired self-professed follower of Kalecki.3 Although Steindl’s work in this book has had some impact on some Marxist writers,4 it has largely been neglected in the economics profession.5
