Measuring the Wealth of Nations

Download or read book Measuring the Wealth of Nations written by Anwar M. Shaikh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-11-28 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an alternate foundation for the measurement of the production of nations, and applies it to the U.S. economy for the postwar period. The patterns that result are significantly different from those derived within conventional systems of national accounts. Conventional national accounts seriously distort basic economic aggregates, because they classify military, bureaucratic and financial activities as the creation of new wealth, when in fact they should be classified as forms of social consumption that, like personal consumption, actually use up social wealth in the performance of their functions.