turbocapitalism

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noun

An accelerated form of capitalism that lacks measures to keep the system in equilibrium and prevent social unrest.

Scrabble 23

Meanings

nounturbocapitalism (uncountable)

alternative turbo-capitalism

  1. uncountablecapitalismAn accelerated form of capitalism that lacks measures to keep the system in equilibrium and prevent social unrest.

    As in China, nominally communist Vietnam has embraced brakes-off turbocapitalism, and the old dream of society has been picked clean.

    2017 September 27, Jason Farago, “Southeast Asia Stakes Its Claim in the Art World”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    3 more examples

    It was not until the end of the 1970s that today's roaring turbo-capitalism was unleashed by the abolition of anti-competition laws and regulations left over from the 1930s, by the technological innovations thus allowed, by the privatization of whatever could be privatized, and by the removal of most important barriers.

    1999, Edward Luttwak, Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy, New York: Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 1

    Instead, he [Barack Obama] and [Gordon] Brown stand together, supposedly the representatives of Anglo-American turbocapitalism, struggling to push the statist French and Germans—and this is the bit that was in nobody's script—leftward.

    2009 March 31, Jonathan Freedland, “Where is the new JFK we expected? He's stuck in a rut with Gordon Brown”, in The Guardian

    David Cameron has marched onto territory staked out by Ed Miliband by promising that there would be no return to the "turbo-capitalism" of recent decades.

    2012 January 19, Nicholas Watt, “David Cameron pledges era of ‘popular capitalism’”, in The Guardian

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

From turbo- + capitalism, popularized by Edward Luttwak in Turbo-Capitalism (1998).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

German Turbokapitalismus
  • Turbokapitalismusaccelerated form of capitalism
Italian turbocapitalismo
  • turbocapitalismoaccelerated form of capitalism
Cite this entry
APA

turbocapitalism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turbocapitalism

MLA

“turbocapitalism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turbocapitalism. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “turbocapitalism,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turbocapitalism.

Source: turbocapitalism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.