Mariana Mazzucato Has a ‘Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism’
The economist says building back the power of the state is critical to solving society’s biggest problems.
In November 1968, seven months before the first moon landing, the journal Science wrote that the “most valuable spin-off of all” from America’s space program “will be human rather than technological.” Namely, the journal said: “better knowledge of how to plan, coordinate, and monitor the multitudinous and varied activities of the organizations required to accomplish great social undertakings.”
Mariana Mazzucato, a leading economist at University College London, makes the same point about planning and coordination in a new book, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. Bloomberg’s Stephanie Flanders featured Mazzucato in her April 15 Stephanomics podcast. And in an April 15 column for Project Syndicate, Mazzucato explains its relevance to the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” mission: “By strengthening the public sector’s capabilities and outlining a clear purpose for public-private alliances,” she writes, “the Biden administration could both deliver growth and help tackle some of the greatest challenges of our age, from inequality and weak health systems to global warming.”