One critical shift in US political economy was domestic Peak Oil ... prior to the late 1960's, production quotas from the Texas oil fields were used to stabilize prices. That gave a strong incentive to capital-intensive, labor-extensive oil producers to support full employment policies.

After the quotas were lifted, the special incentive of Texas oil producers to focus on maintaining sustained high employment was lifted, as they sold their full production irrespective of the state of economic activity.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.