"Is Capitalism Rigged?": A Political Economy Project Event

"Is Capitalism Rigged?" A Political Economy Project Debate

Distinguished economist Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago, debated discussants: Dartmouth Economics Prof. Doug Irwin and Government Prof. Russ Muirhead.

There is a growing sense across the rich world that capitalism does not work as it should. In many countries, wages have barely grown over the past decade, while the rich seem to be running away with all the gains. Many economists argue that the common factor explaining all of these ills is that firms have too much market power, allowing big business to charge higher prices to consumers for poorer service, and also get away with paying their staff lower wages. Others argue that capitalism is a process of "creative destruction" where firms must serve consumers with better goods at lower prices or face extinction due to competition, and in the process give to rise rising standards of living.

So, is capitalism really rigged in favor of the elites, or is it government regulation that promotes big business? What reforms should we be considering? Is socialism an acceptable alternative to capitalism?

Deirdre N. McCloskey has been since 2000 UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Trained at Harvard as an economist, she has written 16 books and edited seven more, and has published some 360 articles on economic theory, economic history, philosophy, rhetoric, feminism, ethics, and law. She taught for 12 years in Economics at the University of Chicago, and describes herself now as a "postmodern, free-market, quantitative, Episcopalian, feminist Aristotelian." She is best known for her trilogy The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Capitalism, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World, and Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World. Other best-known books were The Rhetoric of Economics and Crossing: A Memoir, which was a New York Times Notable Book. 

Co-sponsored by Nelson A. Rockefeller Center.

The event took place on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 4:30pm – 6:00pm in Filene Auditorium