As Jeff Madrick makes clear, the single-minded pursuit of huge personal wealth has been on the rise in the United States since the 1970s, led by a few individuals who argue that self-interest guides society more effectively than community concerns. In telling the stories of these politicians,...

The author of the widely praised Age of Greed now gives us a bold indictment of some of our most accepted economic theories-why they're wrong, the harm they've done, and the theories that would vastly improve on them. Jeff Madrick-former New York Times business columnist and now Harper's...