Introduction: Toward a New Economy

Almost a decade has passed since the financial crisis, yet economic debate remains trapped by stale assumptions that led to the calamity. As Hillary Clinton observed of the Democratic Party in a strikingly honest interview with the New Yorker a few weeks before the election: “We have been fighting out elections in general on a lot of noneconomic issues over the past thirty years . . . but we haven’t had a coherent, compelling economic case.” Liberals still don’t have one—and, despite posturing to the contrary, neither do conservatives. The diverse essays assembled here point the way to new ground. They analyze capitalism’s past, present, and future—from slavery to the transformations wrought by globalization, and present novel ideas for reform.