Beginning with the economic meltdown of 2007/8, this book shows that the predatory mortgage lending and overleveraging-which is to say, the overextension of credit-which precipitated The Great Recession was a response to a crisis of overproduction reflective of an unavoidable contradiction at the heart of competitive capitalism. This contradiction, in addition to portending capitalism's inevitable ultimate demise, invites both a pragmatic and moral comparison of (US) capitalism with (Chinese) socialism. Simon V. Glynn provides a critique of political economy and an analysis of the economic logic of capitalism, pointing to the inevitable triumph of socialism.