The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality - Softcover

Katharina Pistor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691208603 ISBN 13: 9780691208602

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2020

Synopsis

A compelling explanation of how the law shapes the distribution of wealth What is it that transforms a simple object, an idea, or a promise to pay into an asset that creates wealth? Katharina Pistor explains how, behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, capital is created-and why this little-known activity is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time, The Code of Capital explores the various ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are selectively coded to protect and reproduce private wealth. This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it.

About this title

About the Author

Katharina Pistor is the Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law and director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia Law School. Her books include Law and Capitalism: What Corporate Crises Reveal about Legal Systems and Economic Development around the World. Twitter @KatharinaPistor

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0691208603
• ISBN 13: 9780691208602
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320