Rentier Capitalism

Rentier Capitalism:Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?

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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.

Reviews

  • In praise of The New Enclosure:

    With his carefully crafted and meticulously researched study, he has made an essential contribution to our understanding of politics and government in modern Britain.

    Adam ToozeFinancial Times
  • In praise of The New Enclosure:

    The biggest privatisation of all isn’t housing, railways, or utilities, but the oldest source of oligarchic power—land. In this clear, readable, accessible and maddening book, Brett Christophers makes clear the massive mismanagement, waste, opacity and centralisation of wealth that has resulted. Necessary reading for anyone who wants to know where ruling class power comes from, and how to take it back.

    Owen Hatherley
  • In praise of The New Enclosure:


    If you’re someone who’s interested in Britain—and I mean Britain tout court: the whole 80,823 square miles of its physical existence—then this is a book you must read.

    Will SelfGuardian