Capitalism in the 21st Century

Why Global Capitalism Is Broken and How It Can Be Fixed

Global capitalism is currently suffering from an unmistakable malaise, epitomized by wide and growing inequality that is eroding popular support for capitalism. Such anti-capitalist sentiment, coupled with a growing anti-globalization mood, delivered Brexit in a UK referendum and swept Donald Trump to the US presidency. In Capitalism in the 21st Century, internationally well-regarded economist Dr Donghyun Park articulately explains why more capitalism is needed to tackle global problems such as climate change and inhumane poverty. While defending capitalism against its unfair demonization, the author makes a positive case for entrepreneurial capitalism, which creates wealth and jobs as well as drives human progress. According to the author, reforming the financial industry, which has become a self-serving leviathan, and more fundamentally, tweaking the economic role of the government, which stifles growth-promoting entrepreneurship, are critical to restoring the vitality of capitalism. The book is explicitly written in such a way that the general reader without any background in economics or finance can easily understand it.

Contents:

• Capitalism in Crisis?
• World's Worst Cars, North Korea, Biggest Man-Made Disaster in History, and Entrepreneurial Chinese DNA
• Cuban Doctors, Communism versus Socialism, and North Korea versus India
• Inequality, the Cancer at the Heart of Capitalism
• Equality of Opportunity, Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Daymond John, Black Lives Matter, and Public Education
• The Best Use of Taxpayers' Money and the Best Way to Help the Poor
• Gates Foundation, Giving Pledge Campaign, Carnegie Libraries, and Panama Papers Scandal
• The Myth of European Socialism
• Lebron James, Leonel Messi, and Superstar Salaries
• Joseph Schumpeter, Creative Destruction, Iphone, Uber, and Competition as the Essence of Capitalism
• Rockefeller, Robber Barons, and Bernie Sanders
• Googling, Ted Turner, and Job-Creating Entrepreneurs
• Arab Spring, Mohamed Bouazizi, and Equity–Efficiency Tradeoff
• Courageous Office Workers Who Become Entrpreneurs, Ryanair, and Air Asia
• The Two Faces of Capitalism, Adidas, and Rana Plaza Disaster
• Government as Policeman of Capitalist Greed, and Man-Made Disaster in Korea's Beverly Hills
• Government as Corrupt Policeman, Japanese Descent from Heaven, and Swiss Bank Accounts
• Regulatory Capture, Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, and Overpriced Electricity in Philippines
• Russia's Catastrophic Privatization, Thaksin Shinawatra, and Silvio Berlusconi
• K Street Lobbyists, Richard Gephardt, and Donald Trump
• Blown Calls in Sports, Capitalist Competition, Government as Referee, Democratic Capitalism versus Elite Capitalism, and Merit Capitalism versus Hereditary Capitalism
• Telecoms, AT&T, and Natural Monopoly
• Privatization, Russian Billionaires, and Carlos Slim
• Henry Ford, Joseph Schumpeter's Creative Destruction, and the Power of Patents
• Over-Regulation, the Final Straw for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
• Arab Bureaucracy, Ridha Yahyaoui, and Islamic State
• Ingenious Nigerian Entrepreneurs, Dodd-Frank, and Obamacare
• Market Failure, Global Warming, and Carbon Tax
• Saving Amazon Rainforests and World Environment Organization
• Big Mac, National Defense, and the Case for Public Education
• The Myth of Free Health Care
• Best Use of Tax Payers' Money 2, Limited Government Budgets, and Bolsa Familia
• $1-a-Week Private Schools, Mathare Slum in Kenya, and Pablo Escobar
• Failed States, Genocidal Governments, Boko Haram, and Bashar Assad
• Failing Airlines, Striking Pilots, and Bloated State Company Payrolls
• Firing Government Workers
• Toxic Public Schools, Toxic Teachers' Unions, and Their Harmful Impact on Inequality
• Lazy Uncaring Parents, Finland's World-Class Education System, and Teach for America
• Iron Curtain, Government Production of Goods and Services, and the East Asian Miracle
• Industrial Policy, Park Chung-Hee, and Lee Kuan Yew
• Recep Erdoğan, and the Rwandan Genocide
• Paul Kagame, Teodoro Obiang, and Africa's Sahara-Crossing Economic Refugees
• The Curse of Foreign Aid, and Medécins Sans Frontières
• Egyptian Boys in Rome, Tragedy of Aylan Kurdi, and the Meaning of Good Government in Developing Countries
• Western Ideals versus Third World Realities
• Middle-Income Trap and the Curse of Abundant Natural Resources
• Evita Perón, Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro, and Latin American Banana Republics
• The Stunning Rise of China, and Mandarin-Speaking Guides in Parisian Shops
• Transformational Leaders, Deng Xiaoping, Ronald Reagan, and Chinese Human Rights
• Markets Over Mao
• America and China, The Two Best Hopes for Tomorrow's Capitalism
• Singaporean State Capitalism, and Singapore Airlines
• Korean Industrial Policy, Hyundai Car Jokes, and Samsung Galaxy Phones
• Lessons from Korea and Singapore
• Government Bureaucrats as Parasites of Business, Businessmen as Parasites of the Government
• A Suburban Garage in Los Altos, California, USA
• Silicon Valleys in Russia and Malaysia, Shenzhen, Didi Chuxing, and WeChat
• The Vast Unfulfilled Promise of India: Will History Be Kind to Narendra Modi?
• China's Growth Slowdown, the Grotesque Mutation of Capitalism, and Risk Parasites
• Risk Tax, Entrepreneurial Capitalism, and Entrepreneurship 101
• US Subprime Mortgage Crisis and Global Financial Crisis, 2008–2009: A Short History
• The Free Bailout, Too Big to Fail, and Arsonist Bankers
• Private Gain, Social Pain: The Blatant Greed and Arrogance of Wall Street
• Good Finance, Evil Finance, Occupy Wall Street, and Mike Markkula
• Ending Subsidies for Wall Street, and Returning Finance to Its Roots
• The Fed's Easy Money, the Greenspan Put, and the Bernanke Put: Another Massive Subsidy for Wall Street
• Elon Musk, Boyan Slat, and Green Growth
• Toward a Better Capitalism and Toward a Better World

Readership: General readers.
Key Features:

• This book is a unique collection of short stories that collectively highlight the immense historical contribution of capitalism to human progress as well as its current malaise
• The short stories are self-contained and based on topical issues such as the rise of China as an economic heavyweight, Brexit, and the political success of Donald Trump. As such, virtually all readers will be able to easily relate to the book
• The book is highly accessible so that even readers with no background at all in economics or finance can fully understand it, yet substantive enough to be interesting and thought-provoking for even professional economists