Eminent German economic sociologist Wolfgang Strick analyzes the origins of recent financial, tax and economic crises as part of the long neoliberal transformation of post-war capitalism that began in the 1970s. Turning to theories of the crisis put forward at the time, he analyzes the subsequent contradictions and conflicts between states, governments, voters and capitalist interests – a process in which the focus of the European system of states shifted from taxation through debt to fiscal "consolidation". The study ends with a consideration of the prospects for restoring social and economic stability. The book is of interest to economists, sociologists, political scientists and historians.