The world is encountering multiple crises - climate, droughts, floods, energy, food, and pandemics, to name a few. We have a problem, this is the solution.

Capitalism and Crises is about how capitalism can fix them - how it can solve not cause them. The reason why it has caused them is that we have misconceived the nature of our capitalist system. We have failed to understand the key institution at the heart of it - business - and as a result we have allowed it to cause as well as solve problems. This book describes why this has happened and what needs to change to address it: it will take you through how the capitalist system operates, where it fails and why, and it will demonstrate that at the core of the problem is the key driver of capitalism and that is profit - the way in which we resource and reward those who run the system.

Currently, profit comes from causing as well as solving problems. It must not, if we are to prevent the problems. Drawing on history, philosophy, psychology, and biology as well economics, law, and finance, Mayer describes what has gone wrong, what needs to change, and how to fix it. He sets out the big challenges that capitalism must address and how it should set about doing that, and discusses how financial institutions should be at the heart of this, and how the public sector can work with the private on a common purpose of solving problems and creating shared prosperity. Capitalism and Crises provides an inspiring and motivational roadmap of how we as practitioners, policymakers, consumers, employees, communities, students, and citizens of the world can together tackle the challenges of the 21st century - to flourish and survive.

The Problem
1: The System
2: The Challenge
The Duty
3: The Moral Law
4: The Role of Law
The Method
5: Owning the Problem
6: Leading Solutions
The Prize
7: Valuing the Invaluable
8: Just Profit
The Commitment
9: Financing Equity
10: Our Common Purpose
The End
Acknowledgements
Further Readings

Colin Mayer

Colin Mayer CBE FBA is Emeritus Professor of Management Studies and Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the European Corporate Governance Institute, an Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College and St Anne's College, Oxford, and he has an Honorary Doctorate from Copenhagen Business School. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Playhouse, and was co-chair of the Scottish Government Business Purpose Commission, a member of the UK Government Natural Capital Committee, and the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal.