The Asset Economy

1. Auflage September 2020
176 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Kurzbeschreibung
Rising inequality is the defining feature of our age. With the lion's share of wealth growth going to the top, for a growing percentage of society a middle-class existence is out of reach. What exactly are the economic shifts that have driven the social transformations taking place in Anglo-capitalist societies?
In this timely book, Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper and Martijn Konings argue that the rise of the asset economy has produced a new logic of inequality. Several decades of property inflation have seen asset ownership overshadow employment as a determinant of class position. Exploring the impact of generational dynamics in this new class landscape, the book advances an original perspective on a range of phenomena that are widely debated but poorly understood - including the growth of wealth inequalities and precarity, the dynamics of urban property inflation, changes in fiscal and monetary policy and the predicament of the "millennial" generation. Despite widespread awareness of the harmful effects of Quantitative Easing and similar asset-supporting measures, we appear to have entered an era of policy "lock-in" that is responsible for a growing disconnect between popular expectations and institutional priorities. The resulting polarization underlies many of the volatile dynamics and rapidly shifting alliances that dominate today's headlines.
Rising inequality is the defining feature of our age. With the lion's share of wealth growth going to the top, for a growing percentage of society a middle-class existence is out of reach. What exactly are the economic shifts that have driven the social transformations taking place in Anglo-capitalist societies?
In this timely book, Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper and Martijn Konings argue that the rise of the asset economy has produced a new logic of inequality. Several decades of property inflation have seen asset ownership overshadow employment as a determinant of class position. Exploring the impact of generational dynamics in this new class landscape, the book advances an original perspective on a range of phenomena that are widely debated but poorly understood - including the growth of wealth inequalities and precarity, the dynamics of urban property inflation, changes in fiscal and monetary policy and the predicament of the "millennial" generation. Despite widespread awareness of the harmful effects of Quantitative Easing and similar asset-supporting measures, we appear to have entered an era of policy "lock-in" that is responsible for a growing disconnect between popular expectations and institutional priorities. The resulting polarization underlies many of the volatile dynamics and rapidly shifting alliances that dominate today's headlines.
2. Asset Logics
3. The Making of the Asset Economy
4. New Class Realities
5. Conclusion
References
Brent E. Sasley, University of Texas at Arlington
?Ahram knits together the factors that have trapped the Middle East in violence, capturing the complexities of the region in a straightforward and accessible way. War and Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa is an excellent guide to the region today.?
Daniel Byman, Georgetown University
?Ariel Ahram has cleared the conceptual underbrush and introduced a number of important arguments about conflict in the Middle East. My students will be reading this book. If you want a clear-headed primer on the region's many wars, you should read it, too.?
F. Gregory Gause, III, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
Melinda Cooper is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Sydney.
Martijn Konings is Professor of Political Economy and Social Theory at the University of Sydney.