El capitalismo del siglo XXI

In the last forty years, inequality has increased substantially and economies have lost business and productive dynamism. Both phenomena have common causes. As of 1980, the rules and practices that regulate the functioning of the markets began to change and their supervision was notably reduced. The same neoliberal doctrine that promoted this deregulation placed the interest of the shareholders as the only guide for productive decisions. The high concentration of market power generated by the new paradigm is a relevant factor both in the greater inequality and in the loss of business dynamism. The emergence of the so-called surveillance capitalism, led by companies that are allowed to accumulate great power in digital markets, is the continuation of the deregulation process. These companies, by trading with the possibility of affecting the behavior of citizens based on the information they provide, can disrupt the functioning of democracies. Carlos Sebastián analyzes different proposals for the reform of capitalism (those of Stiglitz, Piketty, Collier, Tepper and Hearn, Mayer, etc.), who share the conviction that the current situation has not been an accident, but the result of certain political options that can be changed.