This book develops the theme of my earlier Innovation: The Creative Impulse in Human Progress, and considerably expands the latter book. I came to the study of innovation from experience in industry which had brought me into close practical contact with it, and my initial interest in the subject was in terms of the way in which it expressed human creativity. Progressively, however, my focus shifted towards the laws which help or hinder creativeness in being economically fruitful. This led to the writing of The Political Economy of Innovation and the editing of Direct Protection of Innovation....

Capitalism has been sustained by inherited moral values that are now all but exhausted. A unique combination of a new belief in individualism and a long tradition of property rights had traditionally ensured that self-interested action also produced public benefit. However, these rights, including the laws underwriting economic and financial innovation and parliamentary democracy, were gradually captured and shaped by those who could benefit most from them. This fascinating book shows that the outcome is a reduced ability to generate real wealth combined with exceptional inequality, as well...