The Asset Economy

Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper, Martijn Konings

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781509543465
  9781509543458
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781509543472
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Policy
• Index: Economics

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.

Index

• Arrow-Debreu model, 13
• asset appreciation, 5–6, 9–11, 17, 21–2, 24, 42–4, 50, 65, 69, 73, 79, 83; see also asset prices
• asset depreciation, 8, 11, 17, 22, 35, 73, 79; see also asset prices
• asset ownership
  • ability to purchase, 5–6, 10, 21, 28, 31, 51–2, 88
  • and class, 5–7, 8, 10–11, 23–5, 27–8, 51, 53–5, 58–68, 72, 78–9, 80, 83
  • democratization of, 9–10, 31, 43–53, 84, 90
  • generational aspects, 6, 10, 28, 65–8, 75–8
  • income from see capital gains; investment income
  • and inequality, 5–7, 8, 11, 23–8, 54–5, 61–2, 64–5, 80–1, 83, 85–6
  • and life courses, 68–75, 80–1
  • promotion of, 25, 44
  • and property rights, 26
  • see also home ownership; stock ownership
• asset prices
  • deflation, 22, 33–5, 73
  • divergence from wages, 3, 5–6, 7–8, 33, 43, 51, 84, 87–8
  • inflation, 6, 8–9, 22–3, 28–32, 33, 41–3, 49, 64, 73, 80, 86–90
  • stagnation, 9, 33
  • see also asset appreciation; asset depreciation; property prices
• austerity, 48, 50, 67, 85
• Australia, 9, 34, 37–9, 41, 43, 44, 50–1, 58, 62, 65–6, 70, 76–7, 88, 89

• baby boomer generation, 2, 10, 65, 67–8
• bailouts, 30, 42, 74
• balanced budgets, 40, 48
• Bank of England, 40–1
• Baraitser, Lisa, 74
• barter economy, 12–13
• Berlant, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Preface
• Introduction
• Asset Logics
• The Making of the Asset Economy
• New Class Realities
• Conclusion
• References
• Index
• End User License Agreement