If you were pinned down and had to summarize the economic and political discourse since the financial crisis in one line, I reckon many would settle one a version that includes income inequality and political polarisation. But this is probably where the agreement ends. Ask ten so-called thought-leaders about the drivers and impact of these two trends, and you’re likely to get ten wildly different answers. In his new book, The Myth of Capitalism, my former colleague Jonathan Tepper, and his co-author Denise Hearn, provide a razor-sharp synthesis of an economy and markets which are increasingly devoid of the virtues that we tend to ascribe to them.
The book’s central message is microeconomic in nature—the market power of one or few firms is going parabolic in one industry after the other—but its implications are profoundly macroeconomic. The plummeting share of labour and wages in firms’ profit and capital creation, the soaring inequality between owners of capital and workers, and the increasing sense that the system is rigged against the median household and individual. Jonathan’s and Denise’ book offers important insight to illuminate all of these issues.
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