Capitalism

My Year Abroad is Chang-rae Lee's new exuberant novel that takes readers on an excursion out of the New Jersey suburbs and across the Pacific into some of the more luxurious reaches of Asian megacities.

After wrapping up his book about the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs, author Michael Pollan turned his attention to a drug that's hidden "in plain sight" in many people's lives: caffeine.

Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century evokes another famous tome with "capital" in its title, and makes comparisons inevitable.

One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, New York Times financial columnist Gretchen Morgenson reflects on what has — and has not — changed about the financial industry.

Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessel's new book, In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, examines the expanding powers of the Federal Reserve in the face of the current economic crisis.

Macroeconomist Dean Baker sees opportunity in the current economic crisis. In a recent editorial for The Guardian, Baker recommended that President-elect Barack Obama boost the economy by spending on national health insurance.

We love low prices, sure, but we frown at the things companies do to get us good deals — like paying low wages. In his book Supercapitalism, economist Robert Reich looks at the divided mind of the consumer and citizen.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg looks at the term "capitalism." He says it is back in fashion after an era of "free enterprise".

Greider is National Editor for Rolling Stone, and a former Washington Post editor. He assesses the state of the global economy in his new book "One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism." He writes that an industrial and economic revolution is taking place in the world, and that its effects may be far greater than that of the industrial revolution.

Economics writer Robert Kuttner returns to discuss his new book, "The End of Laissez Faire." In it, he proposes that the United States give up its roles as world policeman and focus on the type of governmental economic planning that has benefited the Japanese and Germans.

Hernando de Soto says that the inefficient and often corrupt bureaucratic system in Peru makes starting a legal business nearly impossible for most people. As a result, a robust, informal, and technically-illegal market has emerged. De Soto explores this phenomenon -- and similar cases throughout Latin America -- in his new book, The Other Path.

Malcolm Forbes is the owner, chairman, and editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine, whose slogan is "Forbes: The Capitalist's Tool." The company was founded by Forbes's father, and Forbes joined the staff in 1947, and was promoted after his father's death in 1954. The firm remains a family business--two of Forbes's sons work for the magazine. Forbes is also known for his wealth and extravagant hobbies such as hot-air ballooning (he was the first to travel coast-to-coast in one), motorcycling, and collecting art and toy soldiers.

Lawrence Weschler examines Poland's labor movement in his new book, Solidarity. He reflects on how the Solidarity organization's actions call into question the virtues of Western capitalism.