THE
GRIDLOCK ECONOMY: There is one force ensuring that new airports do not get built in America, new lifesavings drugs are not developed, and wireless coverage remains subpar at best: ownership. But contrary to popular perception, it’s not too little private ownership that’s hobbling our economy, but too much. In THE GRIDLOCK ECONOMY, property rights expert and Columbia University law professor Michael A. Heller demonstrates how this is the one overarching factor that stands in the way of greater business productivity and profitability. Economic gridlock isn’t easy to identify because it’s a counter-intuitive idea. But time and again it has been proven that when too many people own part of an intellectual or physical asset—whether it’s a new technology or a parcel of land—cooperation breaks down and the resource ends up wasted. In THE GRIDLOCK ECONOMY, Heller offers insights into how to spot gridlock, and how it can be overcome for the greater economic and social good. With lively storytelling and wide-ranging erudition, Heller zips from medieval robber barons to modern day spectrum squatters; from Mississippi courts selling African-American family farms to troubling New York City land confiscations; and from Chesapeake Bay oyster pirates to today’s gene patent and music mash-up laws—each tale illustrating a time when gridlock caused a breakdown in real peoples’ lives or a corporation’s plans. Heller also argues that in the very near future, innovation in America (and elsewhere) won’t come from creating new things, but from figuring out how to bring together resources owned by different parties. By overcoming gridlock in this way, progress can happen in any number of fields.
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