Capitalism, Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World

AnÊEconomistÊBook of the Year
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An Omidyar Network Ò8 Storytellers Informing How WeÕve been Reimagining CapitalismÓ Selection

ÒBrilliantÉPoses all the important questions about our future.Ó
_Gordon Brown

ÒA scholar of inequality warns that while capitalism may have seen off rival economic systems, the survival of liberal democracies is anything but assured.Ó
_The Economist

We are all capitalists now. For the first time in human history, the world is dominated by one economic system. At some level capitalism has triumphed because it works: it delivers prosperity and gratifies our desire for autonomy. But this comes at a moral price, pushing us to treat material success as the ultimate goal, and offers no guarantee of stability. While Western liberal capitalism creaks under the strains of inequality and excess, some are flaunting the virtues of political capitalism, exemplified by China, which may be more efficient, but is also vulnerable to corruption and social unrest.

One of the outstanding economists of his generation, Branko Milanovic mines the data to tell his ambitious and compelling story. Capitalism gets a lot wrong, he argues, but also much right_and it isnÕt going away anytime soon. Our task is to improve it in the hopes that a more equitable capitalism can take hold.

ÒErudite, illuminatingÉEngaging to readÉAs a virtuoso economist, Milanovic is superb when he is compiling and assessing data.Ó
_Robert Kuttner, New York Review of Books

ÒLeaves little doubt that the social contract no longer holds. Whether you live in Beijing or New York, the time for renegotiation is approaching.Ó
_Edward Luce, Financial Times