I've become rather skeptical about the ability to do big changes.

The reason is that we have been talking about inequality for 15 years,

but when you look actually what has happened, not much has happened at the level of policies.

I'm Bethany McLean.

Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea?

And I'm Luigi Zengalis.

We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

And this is Capitalism, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.

First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?

And most importantly, what isn't? We ought to do better by the people that get left behind.

I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process. This week's episode comes to

you from a live taping at the Aspen Ideas Economy Festival, where we were invited to join in order to wrestle with a

question that has always animated our podcast. Can capitalism still deliver for people in the 21st century?

Or have we reached a breaking point? Inequality is rising, political anger is bubbling over,

and the middle class in many countries feels like it's disappearing. So this seemed like

the perfect moment to bring in someone who has spent decades studying the global evolution

of inequality. Our guest for this event was Bronco Milanovic, one of the world's leading experts

on inequality. He was a former lead economist at the World Bank, and he's the author of

the world under capitalism. Branko has a provocative view. Capitalist isn't going away, but is changing.

And the pressure points we see today, from populist politics to geopolitical tensions to debate

over generative AI and humanity from from it may signal very different futures for

capitalists depending on our society's response.

...