Our obsession with land is the driving force behind human history. It has sparked revolutions and fuelled economic booms as well as financial crises. Land is the world’s oldest and most important asset, and it governs the course of our lives more than any other form of wealth. But this immense power is also what makes it so dangerous.

In The Land Trap, The Economist’s Wall Street editor Mike Bird reveals a sweeping, global history that shows how fortunes have been built – or destroyed – all on the bedrock of land. It has become the linchpin of the world’s banking system and it affects everything from soaring housing prices to geopolitical tensions. From the speculative land grabs of colonial America to China’s modern-day real estate crisis, this gripping narrative shows how the economics of land can make and break families, businesses, and even entire nations.

This is the book for anyone who wants to see beyond markets and money to the hidden game being played out on the ground beneath our feet.

Author Biography

Mike Bird is Asia business and finance editor for The Economist, writing about financial markets, economic development and major corporations across the continent. He is based in Singapore, and is one of the presenters of The Economist’s premier financial podcast, Money Talks.

He was previously a financial columnist and market reporter at the Wall Street Journal, based in London and Hong Kong. In 2016 he won the prestigious Harold Wincott Award for young financial journalist of the year and in 2020 was a part of the Wall Street Journal’s team that won the Human Rights Press Award for the paper’s coverage of the Hong Kong protest movement the previous year. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Before becoming a journalist, he studied history and politics at the University of Exeter in the UK.

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