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.
