The past two decades have witnessed sluggish economic growth, mounting inequality, dysfunctional competition, and a host of other ills that have left people wondering what has happened to the future they were promised. Restarting the Future reveals how these problems arise from a failure to develop the institutions demanded by an economy now reliant on intangible capital such as ideas, relationships, brands, and knowledge.
In this groundbreaking and provocative book, Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake argue that the great economic disappointment of the century is the result of an incomplete transition from an economy based on physical capital, and show how the vital institutions that underpin our economy remain geared to an outmoded way of doing business. The growth of intangible investment has slowed significantly in recent years, making the world poorer, less fair, and more vulnerable to existential threats. Haskel and Westlake present exciting new ideas to help us catch up with the intangible revolution, offering a road map for how to finance businesses, improve our cities, fund more science and research, reform monetary policy, and reshape intellectual property rules for the better.
Drawing on Haskel and Westlake’s experience at the forefront of finance and economic policymaking, Restarting the Future sets out a host of radical but practical solutions that can lead us into the future.
Jonathan Haskel is professor of economics at Imperial College Business School and an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Stian Westlake is executive chair of the Economic and Social Research Council. They are the authors of Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy (Princeton) and cowinners of the Indigo Prize.
"Thought-provoking"—Martin Wolf, Financial Times
"A compelling new book."—Daniel Finkelstein, Times
"Thought-provoking"—Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs
"A fascinating new book. . . . Haskel and Westlake provide a combination of commonsense and ingenious solutions. . . . An important book that deserves to be widely debated."—Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg Opinion
"The insights of Haskel and Westlake on how institutions currently inhibit an economy dominated by intangibles are valuable."—Nick Peterson, Financial Times
"An excellent book."—Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist
“Haskel and Westlake argue that, as intangible capital has come to drive modern economies, it has generated unintended consequences that our institutions are ill-equipped to solve. How do we build deep and liquid capital markets for intangibles-intensive businesses? How can we reform IP laws and rebuild state capacity? This impressive book offers targeted insights that can help us meet these and other challenges.”—Carol Corrado, The Conference Board
“After a decade of rising inequality, disappointing economic growth, and political turmoil, how can we restart the future? In this important and timely book, Haskel and Westlake argue that old institutions are inapt for the new intangible economy. To fix our social and economic ills, we must fix our institutions. It is a powerful and convincing message that everyone should read!”—Carl Benedikt Frey, author of The Technology Trap
“How does the concept of intangible capital help explain some features of what has gone wrong in our world? How is the concept of intangible capital key to fixing what has gone wrong and improving our world? This is the go-to book for those and other critical questions for boosting economic growth.”—Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation
“What explains the sense of malaise afflicting the twenty-first-century economy? Restarting the Future identifies the fundamental problem as a failure of economic institutions and policies to keep pace with the shift toward intangibles. Ideas drive prosperity, and this important book identifies the ways government policies need to adapt to the economy of ideas in areas ranging from setting interest rates to competition policy.”—Diane Coyle, University of Cambridge
