Certain choices that have been made since the 1980s have led to levels of inequality such as have not been seen since before the French Revolution. This increase in global inequality has affected our society, politics, and economy, but it has also prompted experts to wonder what exactly happened, and why. Depending on the approach, each school of thought has highlighted certain issues over others, but Katharina Pistor puts forward another point of view, which has not been fully explored until now. According to the author, capital is generated and accumulated for a very specific reason, namely because there are laws that allow it. This legal coding gives asset owners the chance to increase their own wealth, while also ensuring that this process is sustainable over time. In some cases, the mechanism is never-ending, which puts certain groups of people in an extremely privileged position, especially when compared to others.
Pistor states, therefore, that capital is provided by an asset and legal code: any type of goods or assets, be it a product, service, or a new drug, can be transformed into capital. This happens when there is a legal code that allows it, which means that a certain law guarantees that the asset will be able to produce wealth in the future for those who own it. Today, much more than in the past, many assets produce wealth exclusively through the intervention of the law, such as is the case with computer programs, financial tools, or intellectual property.
