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Capitalism 4.0
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Capitalism 4.0

The Birth of a New Economy in the Aftermath of Crisis

Anatole Kaletsky
Public Affairs, 2010
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Capitalism is dead; long live capitalism. That’s the central tenet of veteran business journalist Anatole Kaletsky’s instructive, perceptive tome. Global capitalism has served humanity pretty well over the centuries, and it has survived by changing with the times. The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the near collapse of the world’s financial system demand a major revamp of free market thinking. The new version, which Kaletsky posits as the fourth in capitalism’s history, will take its lessons from the past and adapt them to harness market forces in the 21st century. getAbstract recommends his thorough recap of what’s happened and his vision of what probably will happen – including economic recovery – to all those looking for a cogent handle on the economic future.

Summary

Inflection Point

The 2008 financial crisis didn’t destroy capitalism, as many predicted. But it did destroy an economic way of thinking that had reigned for 30 years: the blind adherence to the theories of free, rational and self-regulating markets. The traumas following Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, earth-shattering as they were, built the foundations for a new capitalist structure. The commercial system that economists broadly defined as capitalism has endured for more than two centuries, but it has changed over time, fluidly adapting to political, economic, and social needs and events. In those 200 years, capitalism passed through three major iterations. The woes of 2008 were the catalyst for the latest version, “Capitalism 4.0.” This new variation renounces the belief that markets are always right and embraces the concept that government has an important role in economic life. The 2008 crisis demonstrated that political policy and economics must work together to ensure capitalism’s survival and the growth of the world’s economy. Capitalism 4.0 posits that the world is too complex and the future is too uncertain to leave matters up to abstract mathematical...

About the Author

Anatole Kaletsky, a veteran financial journalist, is editor at large for The Times (of London) and has written for The Economist and the Financial Times.

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