Policy Punchline

Nicholas Lemann’s recent book, “Transaction Man,” is an account of the United States economy in the 20th and 21st century, how it has transformed over time, and the impacts of such transformation on all of us. Specifically, Prof. Lemann examines three remarkable economic and social thinkers who he calls, “Institution/Organization Man,” “Transaction Man,” and “Network Man,” who epitomized and helped create the three main eras of American economy. 
In this interview, Prof. Lemann explains these three eras in detail, why none of these models has successfully brought sustainable prosperity to the American people, and how his vision of pluralism might provide a synthesis and possible solutions to today’s urgent social problems. “Institution Man” = Adolf Berle, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s chief theorist of the economy, who imagined a society dominated by large corporations, which a newly powerful federal government had forced to become benign and stable institutions, contributing to the public good by offering