HOW CAPITALISM WILL SAVE US

Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today's Economy

At a time when pundits, politicians and some world leaders are proclaiming the death of "laissez faire" and free enterprise, a new book from STEVE FORBES asserts that capitalism -- economic freedom -- is the real way to revive the economy.

HOW CAPITALISM WILL SAVE US: Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today's Economy (Crown Business; November 3, 2009), by STEVE FORBES, editor of Forbes Media and one of the nation's best-known economic prognosticators, and co-author Elizabeth Ames, explores what the authors call "Real World economics," principles of how markets work that are really beyond politics (politicians of all stripes have both embraced and violated them). The book draws on a variety of voices past and present -- economists, writers and philosophers, from Thomas Sowell and Friedrich von Hayek to Adam Smith. It explains -

-- What really caused the financial crisis and "Great Recession."
-- How today's negative "Rap" on capitalism is not only wrong, but rooted
in cultural biases going back thousands of years.
-- Why freer markets are not the problem but the answer to healthcare,
unemployment and other economic problems facing Americans today.

-- That capitalism, while not perfect, is the most democratic, moral
system on earth.


The authors write that unease about free markets, combined with longstanding cultural biases, has helped create a bad "Rap" on capitalism that has shaped destructive policies over decades -- from the job-killing Smoot-Hawley Tariff that triggered the Great Depression to today's economic "stimulus" and other policies that have failed to truly revive the economy.

Written as an engaging "conversation," HOW CAPITALISM WILL SAVE US: Why Free People and Free Markets Are the Best Answer in Today's Economy covers the most hotly debated topics in today's headlines -- from CEO pay to healthcare. The book addresses classic questions ranging from "Isn't capitalism based on greed?" to "Is affordable healthcare possible in a free market?"

The authors take issue with the popular notion that capitalism is based on "greed." They point out that there are greedy people in any society. Capitalism, however, is a more moral system because it is about free people coming together without coercion and generating prosperity by meeting the needs and wants of others.

"Self-interest alone did not invent the automobile, the Internet, the personal computer, the cell phone, or countless other wealth-creating inventions," the authors write. "These and other innovations are the product of the brilliance and creativity of individuals -- and an economic environment that gives these people sufficient freedom to take risks and pursue their visions."