Martin Wolff - why rentier capitalism is damaging liberal democracy

Economies are not delivering for most citizens because of weak competition, feeble productivity growth and tax loopholes

I haven't been able to read a FT article for two weeks, but today the paywall let me in. FT must allow people to read an article for free from time to time. This is an excellent article describing what is wrong with present capitalist system, and it goes over a lot of different areas.

Martin Wolff describes the feedback loop where certain companies can attract the best talent because they can offer the best wages, and then these people help to keep the company ahead by increasing sales, and so the company becomes richer and can attract more of best talent, and so on. But Martin Wolff says how this is a form of monopoly which affects the rest of the economy and other cities. And without enough competition these companies can extract rent.

A 2015 study by Stephen Cecchetti and Enisse Kharroubi for the Bank for International Settlements said “the level of financial development is good only up to a point, after which it becomes a drag on growth, and that a fast-growing financial sector is detrimental to aggregate productivity growth”. When the financial sector grows quickly, they argue, it hires talented people. These then lend against property, because it generates collateral. This is a diversion of talented human resources in unproductive, useless directions.

in unproductive, useless directions.-activities.pdf

FT

Martin Wolff - Martin Wolf: why rentier capitalism is damaging liberal democracy