How Capitalism Destroyed Itself

Kingstons history of the evolution of property rights, and on how property rights regimes influence and reflect the kind of economic activity people engage in, and how they regard economic activity, is interesting and provocative in its own right. Others have argued that capitalism seems to have lost much of the power to increase the productivity of economic activity that it once had, and the workings of modern financial systems are a good part of the problem. But no one else has tied these propositions closely to the evolution of property rights. Richard R. Nelson, Columbia University, New York This sweeping account of the rise and projected fall of capitalism is as original as it is gripping. Kingston locates the hinge that moves capitalism as the institutions governing property rights, and argues persuasively that the system is now undermining itself as innovation shifts from the technological to the financial domain. John A. Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney William Kingston is a prolific and thoughtful economic historian who has relied on such longstanding giants as Marx and Schumpeter, and new ones such as Minsky, to show how financial innovation has replaced technological innovation, and how this process is destroying the economic fabric of society. Kingstons deep understanding of the free-market economy makes this book a must-read. Jorge Niosi, Universit du Qubec Montreal, Canada