As a skilled writer of economic bestsellers, Ruchir Sharma does not need to defer to his Western peers when commenting on developments and trends in the global financial sector. This distinction he shares with Raghuram Rajan, though Sharma arguably has a greater flair for capturing the essence of prevailing discourse in an effortlessly lucid manner.

In this book, he follows the trail of other well-known recent critiques of capitalism. He references notable titles and names and, in the end notes, makes clear the wide range of his sources.

What stands out, however, is the rich tapestry of arguments he weaves about the malaise of today’s financial capitalism—or more precisely, the financialization of economies and the hazards it poses. This is especially true in the US, though he also addresses the EU and (the socialist market economy of) China, the latter mainly to highlight certain pace-setting trends.

Departing from other Western critics of the capitalist system, Sharma identifies the systemic fault lines in today’s advanced capitalist economies. Using much the same data as his peers, he constructs a different set of arguments, often resorting to paradox. However, throughout the book, his reasoning is grounded in the perspective of a financial analyst—both the book’s strength and its limitation.

Capitalism