Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It

Do Americans really have to choose between equality and prosperity? Many economists argue that reducing economic inequality would require such heavy-handed interference with market forces that it would stifle economic growth. In Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do about It, Washington Center for Equitable Growth President and CEO Heather Boushey insists nothing could be further from the truth. Presenting cutting-edge economics with journalistic verve, she shows how today’s inequality has become a drag on growth and an impediment to free market efficiency.

Unbound exposes deep problems in the U.S. economy, but its conclusions are optimistic. Boushey argues that policymakers can preserve the best of our economic and political traditions, and improve on them, by pursing policies that reduce inequality and boost growth. The most critical steps are those that limit inequality’s ability to constrict our economy and tackle the ways that the concentration of economic resources translate into political and social power. The solutions start with addressing the subversions, which creates the opportunity to remove obstructions and limit distortions in the broader economy. Unbound explores several tools that policymakers can adopt to rebalance our economy.


Unbound academic syllabus now available

The book Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do about It, by Washington Center for Equitable Growth President and CEO Heather Boushey, now has a instructional syllabus available from Virginia Rutter, a sociologist at Framingham State University. Rutter developed and taught an innovative course on economic inequality, inspired by Unbound. The syllabus will soon be published as a tool for reference for other faculty and/or instructors teaching a course about economic inequality and/or integrating this topic into other courses for undergraduate students. If you are planning to teach in winter/spring 2021 or later next year and you are interested in learning more about this new course and/or want to explore what topics are included in the course syllabus regarding economic inequality, please do not hesitate to contact us at grants@equitablegrowth.org. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you!


Resources

Testimony
Testimony by Heather Boushey before the Joint Economic Committee, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, October 16, 2019

Hearing
Hearing: Measuring Economic Inequality in the United States (video), Joint Economic Committee, October 16, 2019

Column
The political influence and preferences of the U.S. economic elite, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, October 7, 2019

Column
Public investment is crucial to strengthening U.S. economic growth and tackling inequality, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, September 23, 2019

Column
Equitable Growth event highlights Boushey’s new book Unbound about how inequality obstructs, subverts, and distorts economic growth, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, September 20, 2019

Testimony
Testimony by Heather Boushey before the House Budget Committee, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, September 19, 2019

Brochure
Framing Summary and Policy Prescriptions, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, September 18, 2019

Column
Low interest rates can dampen competition and hurt productivity growth, Washington Center for Equitable Growth, September 16, 2019


Media Mentions

Review
How Capitalist Economics Structures Inequality, Portside, May 21, 2020

Podcast
The “I Alone Can Open It” Edition, Slate, April 17, 2020

Interview
Is the US Economy Working? One Influential Economist Says No, Amanpour & Co., February 21, 2020

Op-ed
Robots and artificial intelligence can benefit workers instead of hurting them if we address inequality today, The Houston Chronicle, February 11, 2020

Op-ed
Inequality and Economic Growth, Project Syndicate, January 30, 2020

Column
Boushey Discusses Impacts of Economic Inequality, The Heights, January 29, 2020

Review
The best books in 2019 on the economy we live in, MIT Technology Review, December 23, 2019

Podcast
Money Talks: Maxed out—is Boeing too big to fail?, The Economist, December 17, 2019

Column
Why You Shouldn’t Believe Those G.D.P. Numbers, The New York Times, December 15, 2019

Column
How to reform today’s rigged capitalism, Financial Times, December 3, 2019

Review
Best books of 2019: Economics, Financial Times, December 3, 2019

Column
Billionaire Media Moguls Shouldn’t Run For President, HuffPost, November 26, 2019

Interview
Why economic inequality in the U.S. is at the highest level in 50 years, Yahoo! Finance, November 19, 2019

Podcast
Beyond the Leaky Bucket, Vox, November 1, 2019

Op-ed
The Way We Measure the Economy Obscures What Is Really Going On, The New York Times, October 28, 2019

Review
In the past, America was not as unequal as it has become, The Economist, October 24, 2019

Review
The New Economics: Data, Inequality, and Politics, The New Yorker, October 22, 2019

Interview
Optimal Benefit: Talking to Heather Boushey, Los Angeles Review of Books, October 18, 2019

Column
The Distressing Growth Of Wealth Inequality Of Boomers, Forbes, October 16, 2019

Column
Publish Distributional, Not Just Aggregate, Growth Data, Politico, September 20, 2019


Events

Event
Heather Boushey, Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School, February 19, 2020

Event
Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It, Rice University, February 12, 2020

Event
Measure What Matters: Realigning Measures of Economic Success with Societal Well-Being, Aspen Institute, January 30, 2020

  • Watch the video of the event here.

Event
Programs with a Purpose Featuring Heather Boushey, Leadership Greater Washington, January 9, 2020

Event
Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It, Allied Social Sciences Associations’s 2020 David Gordon Memorial Lecture, January 3, 2020

Event
The great reversal: How America gave up on free markets, Brookings, December 6, 2019

Event
Growth vs equality: Trade-offs or complements?, Resolution Foundation, November 12, 2019

Event
Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do about It’ – Book launch with Heather Boushey, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, November 11, 2019

Event
Unbound: how inequality constricts our economy and what we can do about it, London School of Economics, November 8, 2019

  • Watch the video of the event here.
  • Listen to the podcast of the event here.

Event
Beyond the Crisis? Global Capitalism in the 2020s (conference), Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute, November 8, 2019

Event
An evening with Heather Boushey on how inequality constricts our economy, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, November 7, 2019

  • Watch the video of the event here.

Event
Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It, University of Massachusetts Amherst, October 21, 2019

Event
Panel: Capitalism and Its Discontents, Boston Book Festival 2019, October 19, 2019

Event
Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do about It, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, September 25, 2019

Event
Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It (Invitation only), Washington Center for Equitable Growth, September 18, 2019

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