Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data

Smoothly written and provocative, Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data is one of those rare pop future books that takes fundamental economics seriously. Nobel laureates from Friedrich Hayek to Alvin Roth don’t just make cameo appearances: their insights drive the book’s arguments. Authors Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge argue that the data’s rise means money’s decline, that meaningful economic growth overwhelmingly depends on data innovation, and that regulating market competition requires rethinking data access.
Data are not the new oil but a form of capital much like human, social, and intellectual capital. The authors see data becoming the dominant organizing principle for wealth creation. Markets evolve into platforms enabling valuable new genres of data-rich products, services, and experiences. Fintech supersedes traditional finance. Classical market signals like price descend into anachronism.