Money

The hosts speak with the author of a book on the invention of shareholder value and the transformation of the American corporation in the late twentieth century. They discuss postwar conglomerates and corporate social responsibility, the crisis of Fordism, the rise of financial economics, and the theory of the firm. They look at hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, private equity, the collapse of the public corporation, and the bipartisan consolidation of shareholder primacy in the 1990s.