How to fix capitalism for America’s workers

From slow wage growth, to increasing numbers of men out of the labor market, to rising inequality and rising compensation for CEOs, today’s capitalism may not be working for workers. In May, the Guardian newspaper published a series of solutions to these and related problems, titled How to fix capitalism: Nine expert solutions for America’s broken system. On this episode, two of the authors in the series—Isabel Sawhill and Steven Pearlstein—join Richard Reeves to discuss their ideas for helping workers in today’s economy. During the conversation, Reeves calls four outside experts to ask them for their solution, and then the trio of experts in the studio discuss the idea. 

Richard Reeves is the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair, a senior fellow in Economic studies, director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative, and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at Brookings. He is the author of “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It,” published by the Brookings Institution Press.

Isabel Sawhill is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings and author, most recently, of “The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation.”

Steven Pearlstein, business and economics columnist for the Washington Post and Robinson professor of public affairs at George Mason university. His recent book is titled, “Can American Capitalism Survive?”

Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to [email protected], and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.

The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.