Editing Stagflation (section)

===As differential accumulation===
{{Main|Differential accumulation}}
[[Political economy#Current approaches|Political economists]] [[Jonathan Nitzan]] and [[Shimshon Bichler]] have proposed an explanation of stagflation as part of a theory they call [[differential accumulation]], which says firms seek to beat the average profit and capitalisation rather than maximise.{{cn|date=November 2024}} According to this theory, periods of mergers and acquisitions oscillate with periods of stagflation. When mergers and acquisitions are no longer politically feasible (governments clamp down with anti-monopoly rules), stagflation is used as an alternative to have higher relative profit than the competition. With increasing mergers and acquisitions, the power to implement stagflation increases.

Stagflation appears as a societal crisis, such as during the period of the oil crisis in the 70s and in 2007 to 2010. Inflation in stagflation, however, does not affect all firms equally. Dominant firms are able to increase their own prices at a faster rate than competitors. While in the aggregate no one appears to profit, differentially dominant firms improve their positions with higher relative profits and higher relative capitalisation. Stagflation is not due to any actual supply shock, but because of the societal crisis that hints at a supply crisis. It is mostly a 20th and 21st century phenomenon that has been mainly used by the "weapondollar-petrodollar coalition" creating or using Middle East crises for the benefit of pecuniary interests.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nitzan |first=Jonathan |date=June 2001 |title= Regimes of differential accumulation: mergers, stagflation and the logic of globalization |journal=Review of International Political Economy |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=226–274 |url=http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/3/ |doi=10.1080/09692290010033385 |hdl=10419/157771 |s2cid=55578813 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>