The growing divide between the haves and have-nots has become an issue of increasing concern in the United States.  With the flight of industry to labor markets overseas, rising education and health care costs, and record levels of housing foreclosures, many have been left to wonder: what happened to the American middle class?  Renowned commentator and economist Paul Krugman takes up this question in his latest book, The Conscience of a Liberal.  He examines eight decades of American history in an effort to explain the socioeconomic and political iniquities that permeate American society.  Krugman searches for a way to reclaim the values that once made the comforts of a middle class existence not just an American dream, but an American reality.

Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, a columnist for The New York Times and Slate magazine, and author or editor of twenty books and numerous scholarly articles. Krugman served for a year during the Reagan administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.  His accolades include the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, a biennial award given by the American Economic Association to an economist under forty.

Recorded Thursday, November 08, 2007 at InterContinental Hotel.