Capital is the defining feature of modern economies, yet a lot of people have no idea where it actually originates from. What is it, exactly, that transforms mere prosperity into a secured asset that immediately creates more prosperity? The Code of Capital points out how capital is established nowadays in the offices of private attorneys, and just why this little-known simple truth is one of the primary reasons for the widening prosperity gap between the holders of capital and everyone else.

In this revealing book, Katharina about The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality Pistor argues that the law selectively ‘codes’ particular assets, endowing them with the capability to protect and make private wealth. With the right legal coding, any object, claim, or idea could be turned into capital-and attorneys are the keepers from the code. Pistor describes how they pick and choose among different legal systems and legal gadgets for the ones that greatest serve their clients’ needs, and exactly how techniques that were 1st perfected generations ago to code landholdings as capital are used today to code shares, bonds, ideas, and even expectations-assets that exist only in rules.

A powerful new way of thinking about probably one of the most pernicious problems of our time, The Code of Capital explores the various ways that personal debt, complex financial products, and other assets are coded to give financial advantage to their holders.