The Study of CАpitАl System

The book's central theme is to develop a new theory of speculative capital related to other forms of capital, the world market, and the state. The book distinguishes credit and fictitious capital from speculative capital to show its hegemony today in the capital markets

Clarke shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted . But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and . The main driver of inequality - the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth - today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Clarke says, and may do so again.

The "rock star economist's" underlying thesis is that inequality under capitalism has reached dramatic levels in the last few decades and continues to grow-and that this is not by chance. A small elite is making itself richer and richer and acquiring everincreasing levels of power.