Inflation is the economic plague of the modern world, completely undermining conventional theory and policies for its containment, and setting governments, management and labour on a dangerous collision course. Its alarming spread is only paralleled by the expansion of multinational corporations, some of them more economically powerful than nation states. This book, first published in 1971, provided a totally new perspective on these phenomena, linking them in a common theory based on a thorough analysis of the modern role of capital financing in the global economy. It demonstrates the impact of technology on self-financing growth and explains why inflation can never ben stemmed by attacks on wage costs when the source lies in the need of managements to maximise cash flows. Alternative economic policies are discussed, including proposals for creating assets for workers in the self-financing investment. Charles Levinson draws together the strands of his subject in a way which is comprehensive and rigorous, yet easily accessible to the more general reader. The conclusions reached in Capital Inflation and the Multinationals are still of great interest and relevance to professional economists and students, political practitioners and commentators.

As Secretary General of the ICF and previously Assistant General Secretary of the IMF, Charles Levinson played an important part in developing the countervailing labour response to the multinational corporations. His earlier work, Capital, Inflation and the Multinationals (Routledge Revivals, 2013) displayed the force of his insight into the dynamics of modern economics and technology. First published in 1972, this book considers the opportunities which allow unions to command an increasing share in decisions that shape the worker’s destiny. Chapters include discussions on the multinational corporations, industrial democracy and the ideas behind collective bargaining.

Since the 1880s, the Conservative Party has been an important political force in Britain. In this study of Conservative ideology since the end of Second World War, first published in 1974, Andrew Gamble considers the nature of Conservative party opinion, and the factors that have accounted for its success. The adaptation of the party post-1945 is discussed, as well as the ascendancy of the Right progressives in the leadership, and the challenge of the Whigs and Imperialists. Finally, the book includes a discussion of the fluctuations within the Conservative Government between 1970 and 1974, with an account of what Gamble believes to have been ultimately a failure. A rigorous and comprehensive analysis of Conservative thought and policy, this study will be of particular value to those with an interest in the history of British Conservative politics and government.

First published in 1983, this book provides a comprehensive view of gold and gold trading in its many facets, and identifies those sources of information that are important for an understanding of the world’s gold markets. The author looks first at gold’s changing role since 1960; in particular, the change from the fixed price to the present free market determination of price. The different forms the demand for gold takes – bullion, paper or in fabricated forms such as jewellery – are explained in detail. This is followed by an analysis of the supply side – new gold production and the circulation of existing old gold. The survey concludes with an assessment of the gold market and of gold prices now and in the future.

First published in 1978, The Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation presents the full findings and recommendations of the ‘Meade’ committee set up by The Institute for Fiscal Studies. It represents the most important contemporary examination of the structure of UK taxation and direct taxation systems in general. The results of two years’ intensive research and discussion by this independent committee are presented as a report under the joint authorship of an outstanding team of tax experts. The committee brought together professional practitioners-lawyers, accountants and taxation administrators-and academic specialists in fiscal studies, and here provides a unique review of direct taxation which is comprehensive, singularly original and full of good sense. The book begins with a return to first principles, restates the objectives of a good tax system and analyses existing structures. It goes on to examine the feasibility of basic reforms which would allow the system to become more straightforward in operation and which would base taxation on what individuals take out of the economy rather than on what they put into it.

First published in 1948, this book outlines a solution to contemporary economic problems in the post-war years. This solution aims to make the best use of our price mechanism, free initiative and competition, but also involves the socialization of certain monopolistic concerns and the state control of the price mechanism in such a way as to maintain full employment, to achieve an equitable distribution of income and property, and to restore equilibrium to our balance of payments. It is an outline of that middle way which the author calls the Liberal-Socialist solution.

These essays develop a Marxist response to and approach to aspects of the recent economic past in the United Kingdom. They reflect issues and controversies that have arisen within economic policy debate and the economic theory associated with the debate, highlighting the problematic nature of economic policy in the period since the mid-1970s. The book, first published in 1986, develops a line of argument organized around issues of ‘calculation’, thus challenging the orthodox Marxist framework and presenting a neo-Marxist analysis.