Presented by the Institute for Leadership Studies in partnership with Book Passage

The Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, Robert Reich has served in three national administrations and has written fifteen books.

With the characteristic clarity and passion that has made him a central civil voice, he’ll join us to discuss his latest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, which 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, The System 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.

The result: 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.

Robert’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.

Robert B. 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.