The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future

by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Overview

A forceful argument against America's vicious circle of growing inequality by the Nobel Prize–winning economist.

The top 1 percent of Americans control some 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. But as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains in this best-selling critique of the economic status quo, this level of inequality is not inevitable. Rather, in recent years well-heeled interests have compounded their wealth by stifling true, dynamic capitalism and making America no longer the land of opportunity that it once was. They have made America the most unequal advanced industrial country while crippling growth, distorting key policy debates, and fomenting a divided society. Stiglitz not only shows how and why America’s inequality is bad for our economy but also exposes the effects of inequality on our democracy and on our system of justice while examining how monetary policy, budgetary policy, and globalization have contributed to its growth. With characteristic insight, he diagnoses our weakened state while offering a vision for a more just and prosperous future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393345063
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/08/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize–winning economist and the best-selling author of People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent; Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited: Anti-Globalization in the Age of Trump; The Price of Inequality; and Freefall. He was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, chief economist of the World Bank, named by Time as one of the 100 most influential individuals in the world, and now teaches at Columbia University and is chief economist of the Roosevelt Institute.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xxvii

Chapter 1 America's 1 Percent Problem 1

Chapter 2 Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society 28

Chapter 3 Markets and Inequality 52

Chapter 4 Why It Matters 83

Chaffer 5 A Democracy in Peril 118

Chapter 6 1984 Is Upon Us 146

Chapter 7 Justice for All? How Inequality is Eroding the Rule of Law 187

Chapter 8 The Battle of the Budget 207

Chapter 9 A Macroeconomic Policy and a Central Bank by And for the 1 Percent 238

Chapter 10 The Way Forward: Another World Is Possible 265

Notes 291

Index 399

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Paul Boehmer's deep but gentle tone provides a comforting voice for the harsh realities that Stiglitz reveals. . . . More importantly, Boehmer knows how to project the key sentences of every paragraph, bringing home Stiglitz's point and giving the listener its full weight." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

"A definitive examination of inequality’s effects not only on the economy, but on democracy and globalization."

The Daily Beast

"Stiglitz’s ideas in this book will prompt wide discussion and debate."

Booklist

"The single most comprehensive counterargument to both Democratic neoliberalism and Republican laissez-faire theories…Stiglitz’s contribution…to the public debate cannot be overestimated."

Thomas B. Edsall

"A model of clarity."

Rolling Stone - Jared Bernstein

In his new book, The Price of Inequality, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz does not merely express anger—or rather, he expresses it only to set up a much larger discussion of the problem. In the process, he does liberal thinkers everywhere an immensely important service: He gives them a trenchant, engaging tool for arguing economics from the left…Stiglitz writes clearly and provocatively. He's the kind of economist who can talk about terms such as "rent-seeking" and the "euro crisis" and bring readers along for the ride.
—Dante Chinni

The Washington Post

…the single most comprehensive counter­argument to both Democratic neoliberalism and Republican laissez-faire theories. While credible economists running the gamut from center right to center left describe our bleak present as the result of seemingly unstoppable developments—globalization and automation, a self-replicating establishment built on "meritocratic" competition, the debt-driven collapse of 2008—Stiglitz stands apart in his defiant rejection of such notions of inevitability. He seeks to shift the terms of the debate. It is not uncontrollable technological and social change that has produced a two-tier society, Stiglitz argues, but the exercise of political power by moneyed interests over legislative and regulatory processes.
—Thomas B. Edsall

The New York Times Book Review

In his concise and clearly argued newest, Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, outlines the economic, political, and social obstacles currently facing the U.S. and explores possibilities for how we can overcome them. Beginning with the financial collapse of 2008 and the ensuing Great Recession, Stiglitz (Globalization and Its Discontents) makes the now-ubiquitous point that "the rich were getting richer, while the rest were facing hardships that seem inconsonant with the American dream." The author opines that from this growing gap stem many other sobering social ills, such as "pollution, unemployment, and… the degradation of values to the point where everything is acceptable and no one is accountable." And while he contends that our current modus operandi is "neither stable nor sustainable," Stiglitz insists that inequality is not inherent in the system. He then goes on to lay out a plan for the long term, recommending practical changes to macroeconomic policies, taxes, labor laws, and how we navigate a globalizing world and dealing with the deficit. His visions of America's two possible futures reveals the extent of the dishearteningly large socioeconomic rift and its forecasted consequences, but Stiglitz's solutions—upheld by experience, perceptive analysis, and copious research—could very well bridge that divide, and reduce it in the process. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Stiglitz writes clearly and provocatively. He’s the kind of economist who can talk about terms such as 'rent-seeking' and the 'euro crisis' and bring readers along for the ride... Stiglitz isn’t just writing about people being hurt by inequality, he is also writing about the system itself being in jeopardy and what needs to be done to fix it."

Dante Chinni

"An important and smart new book... It’s a searing read."

New York Times - Nicholas Kristof

"Paul Boehmer's deep but gentle tone provides a comforting voice for the harsh realities that Stiglitz reveals.…More importantly, Boehmer knows how to project the key sentences of every paragraph, bringing home Stiglitz's point and giving the listener its full weight." ---AudioFile

From the Publisher

Paul Boehmer’s deep but gentle tone provides a comforting voice for the harsh realities that Stiglitz reveals in his account of contemporary inequality. Stiglitz offers a methodical and impressive breakdown of the ways in which the current exploitations of capitalism have created and exacerbate inequality throughout the world. Boehmer’s emphasis helps navigate the various nuanced arguments and extensive details. More importantly, Boehmer knows how to project the key sentences of every paragraph, bringing home Stiglitz’s point and giving the listener its full weight. While at times, Boehmer’s deliberateness eases the inundation of information and the complexity of the argument, listeners may still find themselves re-listening to some sections. L.E. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

JULY 2012 - AudioFile

From one of the world's leading economists, a political call to action in defense of equality and human rights. Nobel laureate Stiglitz (Economics/Columbia Univ.; Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy, 2010, etc.) insists that increasing inequality in the United States stems from a breakdown of the country's political and economic systems. The failure to hold any banker accountable for actions that contributed to the recent economic crisis is a prime symptom of the case. The current level of inequality, writes the author, "increases instability, reduces productivity, and undermines democracy." Stiglitz concedes that there is merit in the arguments of those who point to the effects of technology, greed or the absence of bank regulation as contributing factors, and he agrees that corrective measures are needed. He goes further, arguing that inequality is a by-product of the ability to exploit consumers through monopoly power, and borrowers through shady practices. He shows that the consequences include a monopolistic redistribution powerful enough to have caused massive distortions in the U.S. financial system. This is still not the deeper problem, however. More fundamentally, people underestimate the problem of inequality; as a result, they fail to perceive the changes that are already underway. Stiglitz presents the situation as "the bigger battle over perceptions and over big ideas," a battle being fought through persuasion, framing, misrepresentation and obfuscation. Changing course requires winning this battle for truth. In this way, he argues, equality, the rule of law and accountability can be reestablished. An impassioned argument backed by rigorous economic analysis.

Kirkus Reviews