Rentier Capitalism

Paperback, 512 pages

English language

Published Nov. 1, 2020 by Verso.

ISBN:: 978-1-78873-972-6

(1 review)

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 …

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.

1 edition

pdotb reviewed Rentier Capitalism by Brett Christophers

Essential*, but enraging

5 stars

Asterisk because, although rentier capitalism is everywhere, the author (successfully, in my view) argues that it's been taken much further in the UK than anywhere else, and so it's particularly essential, and enraging, for anyone with a link to the UK.

Christophers lays out the essentials of rent and rentiers, and then devotes a chapter to each of the main instances in the UK economy. This includes land rents, though relatively briefly, but more importantly all the monopoly and near-monopoly businesses to which we're exposed, both the natural monopolies resulting from Thatcher-era privatisations, and the owners of other forms of monopoly, such as IP rights or the digital giants.

Perhaps the most enraging lesson to take away from the book is not just that, basically, the UK has been wrecked by neoliberalism, but that the 'promise' of neoliberalism to be all about unleashing innovation and competition actually only applies to …

Asterisk because, although rentier capitalism is everywhere, the author (successfully, in my view) argues that it's been taken much further in the UK than anywhere else, and so it's particularly essential, and enraging, for anyone with a link to the UK.

Christophers lays out the essentials of rent and rentiers, and then devotes a chapter to each of the main instances in the UK economy. This includes land rents, though relatively briefly, but more importantly all the monopoly and near-monopoly businesses to which we're exposed, both the natural monopolies resulting from Thatcher-era privatisations, and the owners of other forms of monopoly, such as IP rights or the digital giants.

Perhaps the most enraging lesson to take away from the book is not just that, basically, the UK has been wrecked by neoliberalism, but that the 'promise' of neoliberalism to be all about unleashing innovation and competition actually only applies to workers. That is, while workers are forced to become more competitive through increased precarity, big companies have become less and less innovative because they can make money simply through 'sweating' their assets.

About the only downside to the book is that I now feel I really ought to get around to reading Piketty and that... feels like a lot.