The Transformation of US Capitalism and Democracy, 1965–2009

US capitalism in the period 1965–2009 drew on two distinct models: that of 1933–1980 and that of 1981–2009, and not just a single, gradually evolving model like that examined in Chap. 13. At the same time, the return to the laissez-faire regime after 1980 is only superficially based upon the familiar, but simpler, laissez-faire model of earlier times. The differences in the nature and extent of the deregulation in these two eras of US history have not been widely or deeply appreciated, and I aim to elucidate that difference in this chapter.