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.