The author of 12 acclaimed books, Robert B. Reich is a Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served in three national administrations. While many blamed Wall Street for the financial meltdown, Aftershock points a finger at a national economy in which wealth is increasingly concentrated at the top-and where a grasping middle class simply does not have the resources to remain viable.

In SAVING CAPITALISM, Robert Reich reveals the entrenched cycles of power and influence that have damaged American capitalism, perpetuating a new oligarchy in which the one percent get ever richer and the rest-middle and working class alike-lose ever more economic agency, making for the greatest income inequality and wealth disparity since World War II. In brilliantly provocative detail, he shows how our misguided veneration of the “free market” has led us here, and offers an empowering call to civic action as well as specific ideas for reform. Key selling points: – AUTHOR APPEAL: A former White House advisor, talk show fixture, lecturer, essayist, and the star of last year’s acclaimed documentary Inequality for All, Robert Reich is a beloved ambassador of progressive economics and a voice of reason in a media climate of fear-mongering and finger-pointing. He has 500,000+ Facebook likes and 200,000+ Twitter followers, and views of his YouTube videos are in the millions. – SALES: Aftershock (2010) has sold almost 136,000 copies across all formats, and the 2012 eBook exclusive Beyond Outrage has sold over 69,000, proving Reich’s popularity with traditional and digital-first buyers alike. Overall Reich sales are nearing 700,000 with backlist titles like The Work of Nations (1991) still in print. – MEDIA STAR: A seasoned undergraduate professor and media veteran, Reich presents his ideas with vigor, clarity and humor when necessary. He is as comfortable on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart as he is sparring with Bill O’Reilly. – HEADLINE WORTHY: This is Reich’s boldest and most pwerful book to date-and his most commercial. No holds barred. His dismissal of the “free market” as a concept, his advocacy of organized labor, his unsparing exposure of legal insider trading and the revolving door between Wall Street and the Capitol, the increasingly scary influence of money on our political culture he condemns-this book will be a lightning rod for debate while serving as a rallying cry, with specific recommendations for reform. Author Bio: Robert Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the Unviersity of California, Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into twenty-two languages, and the best sellers 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. He is also cofounding editor of The American Prospect magazine and provides

Since the 1970s, and notwithstanding three recessions, the U.S. economy has soared. Consumers have been treated to a vast array of new products, while the prices of standard goods and services have declined. Companies have also become far more efficient and the stock market has surged. In short, American capitalism has been a triumph, and it has spread throughout the world.
At the same time, argues former secretary of labor Robert B. Reich, the effectiveness of democracy in America has declined. It has grown less responsive to the citizenry, and people are feeling more and more helpless as a result. In Supercapitalism, Reich discusses how capitalism has spilled over into politics, how it threatens democracy, and how citizens both benefit from and lose out because of supercapitalism.

Robert B. Reich makes a powerful case for the expansion of America’s moral imagination. Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, he demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation. Societies, he says, undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce the common good as well as vicious cycles that undermine it, one of which America has been experiencing for the past five decades. This process can and must be reversed. But first we need to weigh the moral obligations of citizenship and carefully consider how we relate to honor, shame, patriotism, truth, and the meaning of leadership.

Powerful, urgent, and utterly vital, this is a heartfelt missive from one of our foremost political thinkers.

If you think it’s getting harder to both make a living and make a life, economist and former secretary of labor Robert Reich agrees with you. Americans may be earning more than ever before, but we’re paying a steep price: we’re working longer, seeing our families less, and our communities are fragmenting.

With the clarity and insight that are his hallmarks, Reich delineates what success has come to mean in our time. He demonstrates that although we have more choices as consumers, and investors, the choices themselves are undermining the rest of our lives. It is getting harder for people to be confident of what they will be earning next year, or even next month. At the same time, our society is splitting into socially stratified enclaves–the wealthier walled off and gated, the poorer isolated and ignored. Although the trends he discusses are powerful, they are not irreversible, and Reich makes provocative suggestions for how we might create a more balanced society and more satisfying lives. Some of his ideas may surprise you; all should spark a healthy–and essential–national debate.

From the bestselling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good, comes 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.

There is a mounting sense that our political-economic system is no longer working, but what is the core problem and how do we remedy it? With the characteristic clarity and passion that have made him a central civil voice, bestselling author of Saving Capitalism and The Common Good Robert B. Reich shows how wealth and power have combined to install an oligarchy and undermine democracy. Reich exposes the myths of meritocracy, national competitiveness, corporate social responsibility, the “free market,” and the political “center,” all of which are used by those at the top to divert attention from their takeover of the system and to justify their accumulation of even more wealth and power. In demystifying the current system, Reich reveals where power actually lies and how it is wielded, and invites us to reclaim power and remake the system for all.