By: Rainer Zitelmann

Dr Rainer Zitelmann is a German historian, sociologist and author. His latest book is "The Origins of Poverty and Wealth" https://origins-poverty-wealth.com/

All 59 Articles

In Defence of Capitalism: Why Nokia and MySpace lost their monopolies

April 6, 2023

Each week, Dr Rainer Zitelmann mythbusts the arguments against capitalism. This week, it’s the idea that capitalism creates monopolies – but looking at Nokia and MySpace amongst others suggests otherwise In an international survey on popular perceptions of capitalism, which I commissioned for the book In Defence of Capitalism, one of the main criticisms levelled [...]
In defence of capitalism: Does money corrupt politics?

March 29, 2023

In the fifth of an eight-part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann – the author of the new book In Defence of Capitalism – argues that free markets, capitalism and money make for fairer elections and freer democracies, not the other way round The American intellectual Noam Chomsky, one of the most popular critics of capitalism, writes [...]
Is this crisis capitalism’s fault? No. And neither was the last one

March 23, 2023

In the fourth of an eight part series, Dr Rainer Zitelmann mythbusts the arguments against free markets. Today, it’s “Capitalism repeatedly leads to new economic and financial crises” For as long as there have been anti-capitalists, they have been anticipating the great crisis that would bring about the final, irreversible collapse of capitalism. Karl Marx [...]
What do Brits think of capitalism? Not much, it seems

March 18, 2023

One of the most surprising findings of an international survey conducted on attitudes towards capitalism for the book In Defence of Capitalism is that the British – in the motherland of capitalism – are far more critical of capitalism than might be expected. Only in 12 countries are attitudes towards capitalism more negative than in [...]
In defence of capitalism: How free markets can help us go green

March 15, 2023

For more than 20 years, researchers at Yale University have been publishing the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which ranks countries according to their environmental health and ecosystem vitality. A comparison can be made between the EPI and the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, which has been measuring economic freedom around the globe since 1995. [...]
UK must turn around the ship of state towards economic freedom

March 12, 2023

Dr Rainer Zitelmann is a historian and sociologist. In this guest essay, he argues the UK is slipping down the list of free countries in a new global index Last year, the UK received its worst rating in the Index of Economic Freedom since 1995, when the index was first calculated. This year’s rating is [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: How free markets are lifting people out of poverty

March 8, 2023

In the second of an eight part series, the historian and sociologist Dr Rainer Zitelmann writes for City A.M. in defence of capitalism, arguing that freer markets are usually the answer to society’s problems, not the cause. Each week he will ‘myth-bust’ the common complaints about capitalism – and this week, it’s that capitalism is responsible [...]
In Defence of Capitalism: Why free markets can keep driving billions out of hunger and poverty

March 1, 2023

In the first of an eight part series, the historian and sociologist Dr Rainer Zitelmann writes for City A.M. in defence of capitalism, arguing that freer markets are usually the answer to society’s problems, not the cause. Each week he will ‘myth-bust’ the common complaints about capitalism – and this week, it’s that capitalism is [...]
The EU’s plans for a ‘social sustainability’ taxonomy are a dangerous intervention

February 16, 2022

A few weeks ago, there were heated discussions in the European Union about the so-called “taxonomy,” which will give the EU Commission and European authorities the power to determine which investments are good (i.e. green and sustainable) and which are not. The classifications issued in Brussels would then steer investors’ money in the “right” direction. [...]
No, not that German election: An anti-capitalist referendum on rent prices

September 29, 2021

Entrepreneurs can breathe a sigh of relief and stay in Germany without having to worry about emigrating. At least for now. A government made up of Germany’s three biggest left-wing parties was narrowly averted in Sunday’s elections. Narrowly is the operative word, because the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and Die Linke (the former communist [...]

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By: Rainer Zitelmann

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