How Capitalism Became Global ft. Sven Beckert

Capitalisn't

University of Chicago Podcast Network

Stigler Center, Chicago Booth, Socialism, Antitrust, University Of Chicago Podcast Network, Growth, 087667, Policy, Monopoly, Professors, Distortion, Research, Competition, Capitalisnt, Inequality, Promarket, Politics, Policymaking, Special Interest, Economics, Efficiency, Regulations, Chicago, Business, Markets, University Of Chicago, Kate Waldock, Capitalism, Friction, Bethany Mclean, Government, Macroeconomics, News, Education, Waldock, Georgetown, Microeconomics, Luigi Zingales, Zingales, Finance, Ucpn

4.5 • 584 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is capitalism a force of nature, or a human-made order that we have the power to shape? In this episode, Luigi and Bethany sit down with Sven Beckert, a Harvard historian and author of the new book A Global History of Capitalism, to tackle a question that seems basic but remains surprisingly difficult to answer: what exactly is capitalism? Beckert argues that capitalism is not defined simply by the existence of markets—which are found in all human societies—but rather by a specific economic logic of privately owned capital productively invested to produce more capital. He challenges the popular narrative that capitalism and the state are antithetical, suggesting instead that the state has been constitutive of capitalism throughout its history, from the colonization of the Americas to the industrial expansion of the 19th century. Beckert also argues that capitalism is fundamentally "undogmatic", pointing out that it has thrived under radically different political systems from the British Empire and the slave plantations of the Caribbean to modern liberal democracies and authoritarian city-states. Rather than existing in opposition to the state, does capitalism actually rely on state power to construct markets and enforce the expansion of its logic?

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's not just like a force of nature.
0:02.1	I think that would be a totally wrong way of thinking about capitalism.
0:05.3	I think we should think about it as a human-made order
0:07.8	that we also can shape and create in ways that is conducive to the well-being of as many people as possible.
0:16.9	I'm Bethany McLean.
0:18.6	Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea?
0:23.8	And I'm Luigi Zengalis.
0:25.2	We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.
0:30.7	And this is Capital Isn't, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.
0:34.7	First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on
0:38.6	greed? And most importantly, what isn't? We ought to do better by the people that get left behind.
0:44.0	I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process. What is capitalism? It's more
0:50.1	difficult to get a clear answer than you might think. Wikipedia says capitalism is an economic
0:55.9	system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of
1:01.2	attaining profit. And typically includes things like profit motive, capital accumulation,
1:07.4	competitive markets, commodification, wage labor, and an emphasis on innovation and growth.
1:12.5	Oof, what does that mean? It's not even clear that we can describe capitalism by what it isn't.
1:17.8	Is China capitalist? Probably the two most famous quotes about capitalists are one from Ada's
1:24.1	myth. It's not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that
1:28.7	we respect to our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests. In this view,
1:32.9	capitalist is fundamentally an engine that channel self-interest into prosperity. But of course,
1:37.9	there is the other view, Karl Marx's view, that is the opposite. It is a machine that converts
	...

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