Ultimately, capital is owned by somebody somewhere - it might be an individual, a family or, more usually these days, shareholders. Yes, it might rise or fall a little but, over time, it looked to be stable. Indeed, so fixed was this idea that it formed one of six “stylised facts” - or generalisations that are basically true - of long-term economic growth set down by the economist Nicholas Kaldor in the 1950s. There is increasing evidence that the share of national income going to capital is rising and that the share going to labour is falling, and that this is now a global phenomenon.