Rentier Capitalism by Brett Christophers - 9781788739757

Verso Books

Rentier CapitalismWho Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?\nAuthor(s): Brett Christophers\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Verso Books, United Kingdom\nImprint: Verso Books\nISBN-13: 9781788739757, 978-1788739757\nSynopsis\nIn this landmark book, the author of The New Enclosure provides a forensic examination and sweeping critique of early-twenty-first-century capitalism. Brett Christophers styles this as 'rentier capitalism', in which ownership of key types of scarce assets - such as land, intellectual property, natural resources, or digital platforms - is all-important and dominated by a few unfathomably wealthy companies and individuals: rentiers. If a small elite owns today's economy, everybody else foots the bill. Nowhere is this divergence starker, Christophers shows, than in the United Kingdom, where the prototypical ills of rentier capitalism - vast inequalities combined with entrenched economic stagnation - are on full display and have led the country inexorably to the preci.