Martin Wolf: THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM

Sep 21, 2023

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Robert Misik in conversation with Martin Wolf

THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM

Western economies are in a state of crisis and permanent stress. The rich are getting richer, the poor are not. Inflation leads to loss of purchasing power, faltering growth to loss of wealth. The responses to the multiple crises are erratic. Around the world, powerful voices argue that capitalism is better without democracy; others argue that democracy is better without capitalism. Martin Wolfs new book „The crisis of democratic capitalism“ is a forceful rejoinder to both views. Even as it offers a deep, lucid assessment of why this marriage has grown so strained, it makes clear why a divorce of capitalism from democracy would be a calamity for the world. They need each other even if they find it hard to life together.
For all its flaws, argues Wolf, democratic capitalism remains far and away the best system for human flourishing. But something has gone seriously awry: the growth of prosperity has slowed, and the division of its fruits between the hypersuccessful few and the rest has become more unequal. The plutocrats have retreated to their bastions, where they pour scorn on government’s ability to invest in the public goods needed to foster opportunity and sustainability. „People expect the economy to deliver reasonable levels of prosperity and opportunity to themselves and their children. When it does not … they become frustrated and resentful.“

Citizenship is not just a slogan or a romantic idea; it’s the only idea that can save us, Wolf argues. Democracy itself is now at stake.

Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times

Robert Misik, Author and Journalist

Martin Wolf is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, London. He is the recipient of many awards for financial journalism, for which he was also made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. His previous books include Fixing Global Finance and Why Globalization Works.