Capitalism, alone: The future of the system that rules the world

Branko Milanovic begins the proceedings in this book with two salient observations.First, capitalism is now not only the dominant but also "the sole socioeconomic system in the world" (p.2).Second, given the recent rise of Asia in general and China in particular, there has been a remarkable "rebalancing of economic power between Europe and North America on the one hand and Asia on the other" (p.2).How did we get to this state of affairs?What does the global supremacy of capitalism mean for the future of economic activity in the world?Finally, what does the increasing competition between liberal meritocratic capitalism led by the United States and political capitalism led by China mean for the future of the system that presently rules the world?These are the kinds of questions that Milanovic addresses in his engrossing new book.In what follows, rather than provide a tedious chapter by chapter review, I shall sample selectively from the book's contents.This ought to give the reader an adequate flavour for the intellectual contributions of the book.Chapter 2 begins with a key definition.According to Milanovic, the term liberal meritocratic capitalism (LMC) "addresses how goods and services are provided and exchanged ('capitalism'), how they are distributed among individuals ('meritocratic'), and how much social mobility there is ('liberal')" (pp.12-13).The United States is the primary exponent of this kind of capitalism.He then contends that even though LMC displays attributes that increase 366