Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy

An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity

By: Joseph E Stiglitz

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Inequality is a choice.

The United States bills itself as the land of opportunity, a place where anyone can achieve success and a better life through hard work and determination. But the facts tell a different story—the U.S. today lags behind most other developed nations in measures of inequality and economic mobility. For decades, wages have stagnated for the majority of workers while economic gains have disproportionately gone to the top one percent. Education, housing, and health care—essential ingredients for individual success—are growing ever more expensive. Deeply rooted structural discrimination continues to hold down women and people of color, and more than one-fifth of all American children now live in poverty. These trends are on track to become even worse in the future.

Some economists claim that today’s bleak conditions are inevitable consequences of market outcomes, globalization, and technological progress. If we want greater equality, they argue, we have to sacrifice growth. This is simply not true. American inequality is the result of misguided structural rules that actually constrict economic growth. We have stripped away worker protections and family support systems, created a tax system that rewards short-term gains over long-term investment, offered a de facto public safety net to too-big-to-fail financial institutions, and chosen monetary and fiscal policies that promote wealth over full employment.

Critic reviews

Stiglitz realizes that deepening inequality in our country is not an unlucky act of nature, but a consequence of the policies we have chosen. This lively book suggests a whole menu of policy changes to move us toward a more widely shared prosperity.—Robert Solow, winner of the Nobel Prize

The secret truth about economic inequality in America: once you look at the issue this way, it’s hard to think of it any other way.—Time

At a time when 25 hedge fund managers make more than all our nation’s kindergarten teachers combined, it is clear that the rules are rigged in favor of the wealthy few. Joseph Stiglitz has proposed a bold plan to rewrite these rules by rebuilding our economy for the twenty-first century.—Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

An aggressive blueprint for rewriting 35 years of policies [that] have led to a vast concentration of wealth among the richest Americans and an increasingly squeezed middle class.—New York Times

yes I agree change the policies! great book

loved it very well explained. change our policies and it will change our future economy.

A Plan for the future

Stiglitz is the best. A great progressive economist. He also explains the causes of our economic problems.

The foundation for a successful economy

This book is amazing. It's insightful to the underlying issues plagueing working class people. This should be mandatory reading for any person working on economic and tax policy.

Rediseñemos las reglas!

Genial puesta al día de la influencia de las reglas en la economía hoy en día, y su influencia en la desigualdad, el crecimiento etc. Centrado en EEUU pero de interés para todo el mundo.

Valid Assertions But Lacking Support and Structure

Stiglitz' fundamental thesis and underlying assertions remain as true and urgent as in 2013 when he published The Price of Inequality. Indeed, the urgency has only increased since then. However, the book reads like a never-ending stream of strong statements but lacks accessible supporting evidence and examples. Additionally, the major and minor points don't come together in a cohesive dialog that audio listeners will easily follow. I highly recommend Saving Capitalism by Robert Reich as a much better book covering nearly all the same points as Stiglitz. However, I will grant that Stiglitz states at that beginning that this is essentially a report that was prepared for policy makers. It reads like a report ... kind of dull. All that said, I would still recommend this book to anyone looking for solid coverage of the breadth and depth of underlying problems in our economy, and the fact that the RULES make a bigger difference than we commonly hear.