Many politicians say that "if you work hard and play by the rules," then even low-income citizens can move up the economic ladder. But what if the rules are designed to only benefit the wealthiest Americans? What if America's economic policies suppress the dreams of average citizens? In other words, what if the economy is rigged?Economist Ryan Mattson and coauthor Ben Johnson argue against the insidious myth of American meritocracy, which they say has become a weapon of propaganda d...

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER"For anyone who wants to understand capitalism not as economists or politicians have pictured it but as it actually operates, this book will be invaluable."-Observer (UK)If you've wondered how we did not see the economic collapse coming, Ha-Joon Chang knows the answer: We didn't ask what they didn't tell us about capitalism. This is a lighthearted book with a serious purpose: to question the assumptions behi...

"Read and pay attention" (Martin Wolf, the Financial Times): the bestselling author of Crisis Economics argues we are heading toward the worst economic catastrophe of our lifetimes, unless we can defend against ten terrifying threats.Renowned economist Nouriel Roubini was nicknamed “Dr. Doom,” until his prediction of the 2008 housing crisis and Great Recession came true--when it was too late. Now he is back with a much scarier prediction, one that...

From an internationally acclaimed economist, a provocative call to jump-start economic growth by aggressively overhauling liberal democracyAround the world, people who are angry at stagnant wages and growing inequality have rebelled against established governments and turned to political extremes. Liberal democracy, history's greatest engine of growth, now struggles to overcome unprecedented economic headwinds -- from aging populations to scarce resources to unsust...

How GDP came to rule our lives—and why it needs to changeWhy did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013—or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008—just as the world’s financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece’s chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately repor...

Entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, and upward mobility: These traditions are at the heart of the free enterprise system, and have long been central to America's exceptional culture. In recent years, however, policymakers have dramatically weakened these traditions -- by exploding the size of government, propping up their corporate cronies, and trying to reorient our system from rewarding merit to redistributing wealth.In The Road to Freedom, American Enterprise Ins...

The author of When Corporations Rule the World presents a critical handbook for economic revolution in this revised and updated edition.Despite the lessons learned from the economic meltdown of 2008, we are more vulnerable than ever to the same kind of economic havoc. Wall Street executives have returned to their culture of massive bonuses, and our leaders in Washington remain unwilling to make desperately needed fundamental changes to the economy. Change ...

Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment -- paired with rampant nepotism and cronyism -- on a country's economy. This experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should change it for the better.In A Capitalism for the People

Has capitalism failed?Is it fundamentally greedy and immoral, enabling the rich to get richer? Are free markets Darwinian places where the most ruthless crush smaller competitors, where vital products and services are priced beyond the ability of many people to afford them?Capitalism is the world's greatest economic success story. It is the most effective way to provide for the needs of people and foster the democratic and moral values of a free society. Yet ...

The Great Recession is not done with us yet. While the most acute part of the economic crisis is past, the recession's most significant impact on American life still lies in the future. The personal, social, and cultural changes that result from severe economic shocks build and manifest themselves only slowly. But history shows us that, ultimately, shocks this severe profoundly alter the character of society.Don Peck’s Pinched, a fascinating and harrowing exploration of ou...

For years, America has been plagued by slow economic growth and increasing inequality. In The Captured Economy, Brink Lindsey and Steven M. Teles identify a common factor behind these twin ills: breakdowns in democratic governance that allow wealthy special interests to capture the policymaking process for their own benefit. They document the proliferation of regressive regulations that redistribute wealth and income up the economic scale while stifling entrepreneurship and innova...

"America's foremost opponent of inequality brilliantly shows how the 1 percent rigged the rules, looted the country, and got the ninety-nine percent to pay for it."—Juliet Schor, author of Born to BuyOver recent decades, we've seen a radical redistribution of wealth upward to a tiny fraction of the population. In this book, activist Chuck Collins explains how it happened and marshals wide-ranging data to show exactly what the ninety-nine to one percent div...