Picked up while preparing a(nother) book haul from Blackwells (serioulsy, my TBR is reaching absurd levels). The topic was exactly my jam so…

I actually bought a signed copy, not because I actually cared, but because it was only 30 yens more.

What is it about

Seeing the impact of the platform economy and the oversized place its leading companies currently have in every aspects of our lives, Yanis Varoufakis first wonders if that they are still capitalist in nature or are another beast altogether. There’s no suspense here as the answer to the question is the title of the book: for him, these new companies (which he regroups under the name cloudalists) are the harbinger of technofeudalism, an economic system building on the post-70s capitalist order and incorporating enclosures and chasses gardées from feudalism to fuxk us all.

The book is built as a discussion with the author late father, as a back and forth between questions, answers and side quests. He also tries to address some critics to his position and concludes by trying to describe what can be done against this model and what kind of society could emerge otherwise (something not dissimilar to Kropotkine Conquest of Bread society, updated to the current tech environment).

Final word

Overall, some interesting ideas written in a very accessible way. There are a few comments made in passing which I don’t agree with though.

All that said, it is a book written by an (heterodox) economist and as such, it focuses on money and its creation and movement. And that was a good reminder to me that I do not like the topic.