Foreword / by Joseph E. Stiglitz -- The improbable progressive -- Roosevelt's fragile revolution -- The New Deal's long half-life -- LBJ's tragedy and ours -- The great reversal -- Bad economics, worse politics -- Obama's missed moment -- America's last chance.
A leading social critic recounts capitalism's finest hour and shows us how we might achieve it once again.
Invoking America's greatest leaders, Robert Kuttner explains how Obama must be a transformative president--or a failed one--a president who must succeed in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.
The Virtues and Limits of Markets
Robert Kuttner's quarrel, in this provocative and illuminating book, is not with capitalism per se or with a broad role for market forces: "Consumption is doubtless pleasurable," he writes, "and no one minds a high material standard of living." His dispute is rather with the current libertarian or laissez-faire direction of both economic practice and economic theory that has been gradually gaining in prominence since the mid-197Os. Champions of this approach extol the unfettered marketplace and trust in its ability to increase wealth, promote innovation, and "optimize outcomes"--And to regulate itself flawlessly all the while