About this item
From the author of Aftershock and The Work of Nations, his most important book to date - a myth-shattering breakdown of how the economic system that helped make America so strong is now failing us, and what it will take to fix it. Perhaps no one is better acquainted with the intersection of economics and politics than Robert B. Reich, and now he reveals how power and influence have created a new American oligarchy, a shrinking middle class, and the greatest income inequality and wealth disparity in eighty years. He makes clear how centrally problematic our veneration of the "free market" is, and how it has masked the power of moneyed interests to tilt the market to their benefit. Reich exposes the falsehoods that have been bolstered by the corruption of our democracy by huge corporations and the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street: that all workers are paid what they're "worth," that a higher minimum wage equals fewer jobs, and that corporations must serve shareholders before employees. He shows that the critical choices ahead are not about the size of government but about who government is for: that we must choose not between a free market and "big" government but between a market organized for broadly based prosperity and one designed to deliver the most gains to the top. Ever the pragmatist, ever the optimist, Reich sees hope for reversing our slide toward inequality and diminished opportunity when we shore up the countervailing power of everyone else. Passionate yet practical, sweeping yet exactingly argued, Saving Capitalism is a revelatory indictment of our economic status quo and an empowering call to civic action.
About the Author
Robert is the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He has served in three national administrations, including as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named Robert one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century.Robert is also the co-founder of Inequality Media, a nonpartisan digital media company dedicated to informing and engaging the public about inequality and imbalance of power.Robert has written 18 books, including the best sellers Aftershock, The Common Good, and Saving Capitalism. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Robert is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and Chairman of Common Cause.
