The Weightless World: Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy (The MIT Press) - Hardcover

"This is a wonderfully refreshing read. You've heard the standardstories--the gee-whiz optimism of the technophiles, the pessimism of theneo-luddites. Coyle offers something completely different. Each chapteroffers a novel, often unsettling perspective about the future. For sure shewill turn out to be wrong about some things--but no matter. This is one ofthose rare books that force your thoughts out of their usual grooves." Paul Krugman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, authorof Pop Internationalism and The Age of Diminished Expectations

A call to develop a new politics for the age of the digital economy-when currency and goods literally have no weight. The Weightless World is the first book to map an economic world that has been turned upside down by digital technology and global business. How will our careers, businesses, and governments change in a world where bytes are the only currency and where the goods that shape our lives-global financial transactions, computer code, and cyberspace commerce-literally have no weight? Addressing such problems as economic inequity and unemployment, Diane Coyle calls on individuals and governments to develop a new politics of weightlessness so that the economic benefits can be shared fairly. She proposes the creation of a radical center as the way to a new era of human creativity and economic prosperity.