Luigi Zingales: Capitalism for the People, Basic Books
Risvolto
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed
firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment—paired
with rampant nepotism and cronyism—on a country’s economy. This
experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he
arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the
belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should
change it for the better.
In A Capitalism for the People,
Zingales makes a forceful, philosophical, and at times personal argument
that the roots of American capitalism are dying, and that the result is
a drift toward the more corrupt systems found throughout Europe and
much of the rest of the world. American capitalism, according to
Zingales, grew in a unique incubator that provided it with a distinct
flavor of competitiveness, a meritocratic nature that fostered trust in
markets and a faith in mobility. Lately, however, that trust has been
eroded by a betrayal of our pro-business elites, whose lobbying has come
to dictate the market rather than be subject to it, and this betrayal
has taken place with the complicity of our intellectual class.
Because
of this trend, much of the country is questioning—often with great
anger—whether the system that has for so long buoyed their hopes has now
betrayed them once and for all. What we are left with is either
anti-market pitchfork populism or pro-business technocratic insularity.
Neither of these options presents a way to preserve what the author
calls “the lighthouse” of American capitalism. Zingales argues that the
way forward is pro-market populism, a fostering of truly free and open
competition for the good of the people—not for the good of big business.
Drawing
on the historical record of American populism at the turn of the
twentieth century, Zingales illustrates how our current circumstances
aren’t all that different. People in the middle and at the bottom are
getting squeezed, while people at the top are only growing richer. The
solutions now, as then, are reforms to economic policy that level the
playing field. Reforms that may be anti-business (specifically anti-big
business), but are squarely pro-market. The question is whether we can
once again muster the courage to confront the powers that be.
Risvolto
Born in Italy, University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales witnessed
firsthand the consequences of high inflation and unemployment—paired
with rampant nepotism and cronyism—on a country’s economy. This
experience profoundly shaped his professional interests, and in 1988 he
arrived in the United States, armed with a political passion and the
belief that economists should not merely interpret the world, but should
change it for the better.
In A Capitalism for the People,
Zingales makes a forceful, philosophical, and at times personal argument
that the roots of American capitalism are dying, and that the result is
a drift toward the more corrupt systems found throughout Europe and
much of the rest of the world. American capitalism, according to
Zingales, grew in a unique incubator that provided it with a distinct
flavor of competitiveness, a meritocratic nature that fostered trust in
markets and a faith in mobility. Lately, however, that trust has been
eroded by a betrayal of our pro-business elites, whose lobbying has come
to dictate the market rather than be subject to it, and this betrayal
has taken place with the complicity of our intellectual class.
Because
of this trend, much of the country is questioning—often with great
anger—whether the system that has for so long buoyed their hopes has now
betrayed them once and for all. What we are left with is either
anti-market pitchfork populism or pro-business technocratic insularity.
Neither of these options presents a way to preserve what the author
calls “the lighthouse” of American capitalism. Zingales argues that the
way forward is pro-market populism, a fostering of truly free and open
competition for the good of the people—not for the good of big business.
Drawing
on the historical record of American populism at the turn of the
twentieth century, Zingales illustrates how our current circumstances
aren’t all that different. People in the middle and at the bottom are
getting squeezed, while people at the top are only growing richer. The
solutions now, as then, are reforms to economic policy that level the
playing field. Reforms that may be anti-business (specifically anti-big
business), but are squarely pro-market. The question is whether we can
once again muster the courage to confront the powers that be.
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