First published 2015
Robert Reich tackles America's rigged economic system head on. The former Labor Secretary argues that what we call the "free market" masks how wealthy interests manipulate rules to benefit themselves. Reich shows how big corporations corrupt democracy through lobbying and the revolving door between government and business. He dismantles common myths that workers earn what they deserve, that higher minimum wages kill jobs, and that companies must put shareholders first. The book traces how these forces created a new oligarchy, shrunk the middle class, and produced the worst inequality in eighty years. Reich doesn't just diagnose the problem. He offers practical solutions for rebuilding the countervailing power of ordinary citizens to restore balance to the economy.
Genres: business, political-science, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism
Setting: America
Period: 21st-century
219 pages · Hardcover · Knopf