The unifying theme of the essays in this volume is the increasing national and global power and reach of the market and its growing impact on all aspects of human life. The phrase "the market" denotes both the corporate institutions that are the leading and dominant factors in production, trade, and finance, and the arrangements, mechanisms, and practices that permit and facilitate the buying and selling of goods and money. Thus, the "triumph of the market" refers to the sharp increase in power, and hegemonic position, of the dominant market participants and to the now almost universal acceptance of market exchanges and private ownership as the exclusive way of organizing economic life.