Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?How did Britain’s economy become a bastion of inequality? In 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 precipice of Brexit. With profound lessons for other countries subject to rentier dominance, Christophers’ examination of the UK case is indispensable to those wanting not just to understand this insidious economic phenomenon but to overcome it. Frequently invoked but never previously analysed and illuminated in all its depth and variety, rentier capitalism is here laid bare for the first time. |
Other editions - View all
Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? Brett Christophers Limited preview - 2020 |
Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? Brett Christophers Limited preview - 2020 |
Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? Brett Christophers Limited preview - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
activities Arqiva BHP Billiton billion Brexit Britain British capitalist Carillion cent Chapter companies competition contractors corporate costs decades digital platforms earned example Facebook Figure financial rentierism financial rents Glencore global Google gross operating surplus Grosvenor Group growth House of Commons households Ibid income increased industry infrastructure rentiers institutions Intellectual Property interest investment investors IP rentiers IP rights Keynes labour land rentiers land rents London Stock Exchange LSEG manufacturing Marx ment monopoly power National Audit Office natural-resource neoliberal North Sea Ofcom oil and gas Openreach outsourcing owner ownership patent payments pdf available Piketty platform rentiers political Private Finance Initiative private sector production profits rates regulators rent-seeking rental rentier capitalism residential revenue Rightmove Royal Mail share significant social tion trade types Uber UK economy UK government UK-based banks UK's workers