Steven Pearlstein, "Can American Capitalism Survive?"

Steven Pearlstein discusses his book, "Can American Capitalism Survive?", at Politics and Prose on 9/26/18.

Pearlstein’s chronicle of the last few decades of democratic capitalism documents that the “greed is good” era has left out major tenets of Adam Smith’s vision. Instead of fostering the social capital ensuring that benefits reach all socio-economic strata, the system has suffered increasing income disparity, causing many to lose faith in the free market economy. Pearlstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University, gives a succinct and clear diagnosis of capitalism’s malaise and offers practical steps for healing it, including a guaranteed minimum income paired with universal national service, tax incentives for companies to share profits with workers, ending class segregation in public education, and restoring competition to markets.

Steven Pearlstein is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2008 for columns anticipating and explaining the financial crisis and global economic downturn. In 2006 he won the Gerald R. Loeb Award for business and financial commentary, and five years later the Loeb Award for lifetime achievement. He has appeared frequently as a commentator on television and radio. He is the author of Can American Capitalism Survive? He lives in Washington with his wife, Wendy Gray.

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Produced by Tom Warren