Saving Capitalism

A preeminent expert on the intersection of economics and politics, Robert B. Reich now reveals how power and influence have created a new oligarchy, a shrinking middle class, and the greatest wealth disparity in America in eighty years. Reich makes clear how misguided our veneration of the "free market" is, and how it has masked the power of moneyed interests as they tilt the market to their benefit. He exposes the falsehoods that, bolstered by rhetoric from huge corporations and by the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, have corrupted democracy: workers are paid what they're "worth," a higher minimum wage equals fewer jobs, and corporations must serve shareholders before employees. He shows that the critical choices ahead are not about the size of government but about whom government is for, and that the most salient conflict is 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 diminished opportunity if we mobilize the countervailing power of everybody 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.