The Asset Economy, Who is At Risk Inequality. The Issue of Our Time

This dialogue transitions from establishing shared understandings of inequality to evaluating the ascent of finance in contemporary life. Specifically, the role that assets and debts play in shaping the contours of who is at risk of experiencing inequality. We ask what is new about contemporary inequality and what has changed in the configuration of the economy itself to worsen inequality. To answer these questions the discussion shifts from the domestic national economies to global finance and interrogates the ways in which global financial markets connect to everyday life. We talk to authors of the book “The Asset Economy,” and learn income levels are just one among many significant factors, like family wealth or inherited wealth, plus age, race, gender, and where you live. These are the key elements that configure intergroup inequality.