The grand structure of neoclassical economics is falling apart, but its place is being taken by a different form of 'vulgar economy'. After a prolonged period of hostility and tension, the hatchet of the Second World War has been at last buried. The flag of the Chase Manhattan Bank has been hoisted at 1 Karl Marx Avenue, Moscow and its penumbra is about to reach Peking, The days of hot and cold wars nearly over, the third world continues to be a theatre of increasingly intense economic rivalry among various shades of imperialism.