Rising power, decelerating growth

[Jonathan Nitzan]

In the United States, ‘real’ economic growth has decelerated for more than a century. Part of the reason for this deceleration is that dominant capital has gradually shifted from building new capacity to buying existing one through mergers and acquisition. Here is a bird’s eye comparison of the two processes.

Our research on mergers & acquisitions and the buy-to-build ratio has been reported and examined in different publications since 1999. The data here rely heavily on the meticulous updates and corrections made by Joseph Francis. For a detailed discussion, including Francis’ data for the U.K., see:

Francis, Joseph, Shimshon Bichler, and Jonathan Nitzan. 2013. The Buy-to-Build Indicator: New Estimates for Britain and the United States and a Comment. Review of Capital as Power 1 (1): 68-78.

 

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