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$46 General Admission + Book 
$20 General Admission 

 

From the best-selling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, an urgent analysis of how the “rigged” systems of American politics and power operate, how this status quo came to be, and how average citizens can enact change.

Robert Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations and has written fifteen books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into twenty-two languages, and the best sellers The Common Good, Saving Capitalism, Supercapitalism, and Locked in the Cabinet. His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and he writes a weekly column for The Guardian and Newsweek. He is co-creator of the award-winning film Inequality for All, and the Netflix original Saving Capitalism, and co-founder of Inequality Media. He lives in Berkeley. Visit his blog and website.

“In this book Robert Reich exposes the con job of America’s present manic hyper-capitalism. He exposes a ‘system’ that is defined less by free markets than by elite capture. He shatters the myths about rising tides and boats and slices of pie and whatever else those hackneyed people say, propelled by the insight that while money may not be a zero-sum situation, power is. And when America’s plutocrats use money to capture power to make sure that they monopolize future money, rage swells, human potential withers on the vine, and the soul of the country changes.”
—Anand Giridharadas, author, Winners Take All

Millions of Americans have lost confidence in our political and economic system. After years of stagnant wages, volatile job markets, and an unwillingness by those in power to deal with profound threats such as climate change, there is a mounting sense that the system is fixed, serving only those select few with enough money to secure a controlling stake. With the characteristic clarity and passion that has made him a central civil voice, Robert B. Reich shows how wealth and power have interacted to install an elite oligarchy, eviscerate the middle class, and undermine democracy. Using Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase as an example, Reich exposes how those at the top propagate myths about meritocracy, national competitiveness, corporate social responsibility, and the “free market” to distract most Americans from their accumulation of extraordinary wealth, and power over the system. Instead of answering the call to civic duty, they have chosen to uphold self-serving policies that line their own pockets and benefit their bottom line. Reich’s objective is not to foster cynicism, but rather to demystify the system so that we might instill fundamental change and demand that democracy works for the majority once again.

Yancey Strickler is a writer and the cofounder and former CEO of Kickstarter, the Public Benefit Company that pioneered crowdfunding and has helped artists and creators bring more than 100,000 creative projects to life. (The New York Timeshas called Kickstarter “the people’s NEA.”) He left Kickstarter in 2017, and now travels the globe as an in-demand public speaker focused on recalibrating how individuals and businesses can better understand what’s valuable and in their rational self-interest. He is also a cofounder of the artist resource The Creative Independent, which publishes daily essays by artists and creators on the creative process. He previously worked as a music critic, writing for Pitchfork, The Village Voice, and Spin, among other outlets. He’s been profiled in Wired, Financial Times, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Forbes, and Vox and has given keynotes at SXSW, the Sundance Film Festival, Atlantic Ideas Festival, Techcrunch Disrupt, Web Summit, and more. He was one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40, on Vanity Fair‘s New Establishment list, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.