Neoclassic economic harmony was disturbed by the critical institutional economist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), a Norwegian American from Wisconsin who taught at various universities, usually as an assistant professor (his message was unpopular!). Veblen differentiated between the rational, technical aspects of modern mechanized production and the business and entrepreneurial aspect. The first, technical serviceability, produced useful products that satisfied needs; the second, business enterprise, favored chintzy products that would break or displease quickly, leading to replacement and greater profits for business. Veblen argued that pursuit of gain often caused unemployment, higher prices and costs, and delayed innovation. He thought that borrowing on the basis of anticipated earnings created business cycles of expansion and contraction that enabled large firms to swallow smaller ones. Rather than focusing on class conflicts creating the dynamic of capitalist history (as did Marx), Veblen emphasized conflicts among three cultural tendencies: the machine process, business enterprise, and warlike or predatory beliefs. Business enterprise, he thought, would eventually fail, and the future system would either involve domination by engineers or a reversion to archaic absolutism under military domination (Germany and Japan were cited as examples). Veblen reversed the arguments of neoclassicism