Updated and With a New Introduction

When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street bankers. But Robert B. Reich, one of our most experienced and trusted voices on public policy, suggests another reason for the meltdown. Our real problem, he argues, lies in the increasing concentration of income at the top, robbing the vast middle class of the purchasing power it needs to keep the economy going. This thoughtful and detailed account of the American economy—and how we can fix it—is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for rebuilding our society. Praise for Robert B. Reich's Inequality for All

“Important and well executed. . . . Reich is fluent, fearless, even amusing.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Reich provides a thoughtful dialogue about the structural problems that led to the recent recession. . . . His ideas are worth exploring.”
—The Washington Post
 
“[Reich] suggests a number of innovative ways to reverse the trend toward greater inequality and usher in another, more hopeful phase in American history.”
—The Charlotte Observer
 
“One of the clearest explanations to date of . . . how the United States went from . . . ‘the Great Prosperity’ of 1947 to 1975 to the Great Recession.”
—Bob Herbert, The New York Times
 
“All Americans will benefit from reading this insightful, timely book.”
—Bill Bradley

“Lucid and cogent.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Well argued and frighteningly plausible: without a return to the 'basic bargain' (that workers are also consumers), the 'aftershock' of the Great Recession includes a long-term high unemployment and a political backlash—a crisis, he notes with a sort of grim optimism, that just might be painful enough to encourage necessary structural reforms.”
—Publishers Weekly