First published 2010
The 2008 economic collapse sends shockwaves through America, but economist Robert B. Reich looks beyond Wall Street for answers. He identifies a deeper problem: wealth has concentrated at the top while the middle class drowns in debt to maintain their living standards. Reich shows how the top 1 percent earned 23 percent of national income in 1928, right before the Great Depression, and warns that similar inequality today creates bigger booms and deeper busts. The middle class cannot buy what the economy produces, so they borrow money they cannot repay. Meanwhile, the wealthy speculate with their excess riches. Americans grow angry as they realize the system favors a privileged few. Reich argues that without major changes, the Great Recession will happen again. He presents a plan to reverse course and share prosperity more widely across society.
Genres: politics, economics, social-issues, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: call-to-action, social-commentary
Period: 2008, Great Depression
174 pages · Hardcover · Knopf