The University of Chicago where the theory of human capital was distilled in 1960 The theory of human capital — which provides the intellectual support for student loans and other initiatives that impose the cost of education on students —…
Tag: intangibles
Fantasy profits
Profit – the difference between costs and revenue – is the engine driving capitalist economies. It determines dividend pay-outs and a high proportion of the market valuation of companies. They can’t survive without it. If there’s no profit, there’s no…
Corporations are measuring the wrong thing
A sweeping criticism of the way companies value themselves and report on their performance is set out in a new report published this month by EY, the international accounting and management consultancy firm. The 39-page Accounting & Reporting for Long-Term…
Value challenge for health
The UK Labour Party is banking on health to win back voters. Its members and sympathisers will join the Keep our NHS Public demonstration to parliament on 4 March. But as the by-election in the Cumbrian constituency of Copeland last…
Intangibles dominate Britain’s biggest companies
On 31 December 2015, the 25 companies with the biggest market capitalisation listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) reported they owned £522bn worth of assets that were physical. Their other assets — various types of intangible capital – were…
The problem with productivity
The fall in the rate of growth of labour productivity is a sign of that advanced economies could face a long period of low economic expansion and financial instability, UCL professor Michael Jacobs told the Rethinking Capitalism meeting last night…
Trump and the intangible economy
Donald Trump’s presidential victory was a shock but unsurprising given the billionaire’s success in defying the sceptics every time he was tested since he announced his candidacy last year. It represents a further challenge to the consensus about the trajectory…
Kellner and capitalism
In a piece published on 28 September in the weekly New Statesman magazine, YouGov president and former journalist Peter Kellner said the Labour Party is at a historic turning point due to the election of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader.…
New thinking to promote infrastructure investment
Physical infrastructure and electronic and other processes are essential for value-creation, particularly in the intangible economy. People can’t create value unless they can interact and the greater interaction, the greater the value-creation. Roads, railways, metros, seaports and airports are among…
In economies dominated by services, GDP measures don’t work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNXoaIRL8CI GDP, the most popular way economists attempt to quantify economic activity, is a recent invention and one that won’t stand the challenge presented by measuring output when services are dominant as they are in the UK. The first attempt…