The Second Crisis of the Corporate Economy–The 1970s and 1980s

1. The Postwar Corporation--(Seemingly) a Permanent Presence
   1. The Postwar Business Career--Climbing Within the Firm
   2. Price Stability and Assured Profits
   3. An Entente With Labor
      1. Unions Ceding Employers' Right to Run Workplace
      2. Management Granting Increased Wages, Benefits
      3. Passing Costs on to Consumer
   4. The Long Prosperity--Rising Real Incomes
2. The Emerging Crisis
   1. Continued Discrimination, esp. Against Blacks, Women
   2. Spiritual Malaise--The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
   3. Growing Complacency--The Auto Industry and Declining Innovation
   4. Loss of Corporate Focus--The Conglomerate
   5. Erosion of Special Conditions
      1. World Recovery and Declining US Dominance
         1. US Fostering of Freer Trade and Development--Bretton Woods, the IMF, the World Bank, and GATT
         2. The US Subsidizing World Security
      2. One-Time Sectoral Shifts--The Southern Exodus From Agriculture
         1. 1930s--The Collapse of the Sharecrop System
         2. Urbanization and Industrialization of the South
         3. Migration From the South--The "Great Migration"
      3. Racial Problems to the Forefront
         1. Poor Human Capital Development of Black Migrants
         2. Job Discrimination--Assured Employment for Whites Only
         3. The Civil Rights Movement and Expanded Federal Regulation
            1. Discrimination--Public Accommodations and Employment
            2. Occupational Health and Safety
            3. Consumer Products
            4. The Environment
   6. "Stagflation"
      1. Government Spending
      2. Upward Pressure on Commodity Prices--OPEC, etc.
      3. Business and Regulatory Rigidity--The Wage-Price Spiral
   7. The Global Assault on American Markets