Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has recently written in the Financial Times that records and informaiton is at the heart of Western Capitalism.  De Soto claims that:

The world economy is made up of many tiny parts that are useful only when we combine them into more complex wholes. The higher the value of these aggregations, the more economic growth. Humanity’s achievements – from the 120 ingredients of my clock to the countless financial deals and developments that produced the internet and flight navigation systems – all result from joining people and things to each other. 

That’s why western capitalism has triumphed for the past 150 years: it gave us the best knowledge to explore economic combinations. Capitalism does not need to be re-thought or re-invented; it simply has to be re-discovered.

For more on this story, see: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4520ccda-4769-11e1-b847-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1kyR24L8F