CCS Inaugural Annual Conversation: 'Capitalism in the 21st Century'

The UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies (CCS) brought together three top thinkers on capitalism – economist Thomas Piketty, political commentator Ash Sarkar and the anthropologist and journalist Gillian Tett – for our Inaugural Annual Conversation on December 5th 2024. The event was designed to extend the Centre’s interdisciplinary, cross-sector approach to the study of capitalism.  

At CCS we see capitalism as not static but evolving, challenged but resilient; characterised by profound inequalities and accompanied by a spiralling climate crisis. We can no longer afford to consider these issues as mere ‘externalities’. We need radical rethinking of the relationship between economy, society and politics. 

CCS Director Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou opened the event: the CCS exists to build bridges, break disciplinary silos, involve the public and market insiders in a conversation about the future of capitalism – indeed capitalisms and futures, both in the plural. The panel reflected precisely this approach to building bridges, and was also an occasion to celebrate Thomas Piketty’s groundbreaking work: showcasing how collecting historical data and showing it to the general public can open new conversations about our present crises.  

We began the main discussion with Thomas Piketty’s intervention, which expressed optimism about the future. Acknowledging that the scale of the challenges will require enormous expansion in the role of the state, Thomas suggested that this had in part already happened as the state grew to address the challenges of the twentieth century. He also expressed hope that a global wealth tax could become a central tool in this project, emphasising that the idea was already winning mainstream support, particularly amongst the BRIC countries of the Global South. 

Ash Sarkar and Gillian Tett offered a first round of reflections on Thomas’s intervention. Ash began by querying his optimism, stressing that the recent resurgence of nationalism threatens any coordinated global action and is itself a perverse externality of globalized capitalism. 

Gillian expressed a more cautiously optimistic position, arguing that neoliberalism’s decline should be connected to the fact that its 1970s ideologues did not pay enough attention to the moral foundations necessary for capitalist markets (something famously emphasised by Adam Smith). Gillian then suggested that this is precisely what distinguishes the Reagan and Thatcher era from the new conservatism of Trump: the “tunnel vision” of market economics that defined conservatism back then has been replaced with the more “lateral” vision of cultural conservatives today. 

The Q&A focused on the different perspectives of speakers: the optimistic position expressed by Thomas and Gillian, and Ash’s pessimism. The open discussion also surfaced something of a generational divide, with many of our student audience expressing a loss of trust in global institutions. 

The CCS will continue to explore these questions, including with our Visiting Research Fellows specialising in AI, racial capitalism and nihilism. To receive updates, please join our mailing list