ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have sought to develop the analytical framework necessary for understanding the causes of inflation in a technologically advanced economy such as that of the United States, From the explanation just offered of how prices, along with wages and dividends, are determined in the oligopolistic sector of the American economy only one conclusion is possible - that inflation results not from any 'excess' of aggregate demand but rather from the efforts by powerful groups in society to maintain their own relative income position in the face of the redistributional effect which the inevitable change in the aggregate growth rate is certain to have. This struggle over relative income shares can be seen most clearly in the frequently observed wage-price spiral, with first trade unions and then megacorps seeking to regain whatever ground has been lost.
