Middle-class societies don't emerge automatically as an economy matures, they have to be CREATED through political action.

The United States in particular and the West in general should be feeling a little embarrassed about all that lecturing we did to the Third World.

On the political as on the economic front it's important not to fall into the "not as bad as" trap. High unemployment isn't O.K. just because it hasn't hit 1933 levels; ominous political trends shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s no Hitler in sight.

Wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

I think if you're a liberal, you believe that we all are, at least to some extent, our brothers' keepers, you really believe that we have a sumptuary responsibility to make sure that life is decent for everybody in America, that you believe that society out to be broadly shared, and you believe that you can't have a real democracy unless you have a little bit, at least, of economic democracy.

Unsustainable situations usually go on longer than most economists think possible. But they always end, and when they do, it's often painful.

The habit of disguising ideology as expertise has created a deficit of legitimacy.