Capital Evolution: The New American Economy

by Seth Levine, Elizabeth MacBride

USA Today Bestseller

Business overtook government. Now what? The future of capitalism isn’t left or right—it’s forward.

In Capital The New American Economy, Seth Levine and Elizabeth MacBride deliver a bold and timely reassessment of capitalism in America. Drawing on decades of experience in finance, journalism, and policy, Levine and MacBride argue that capitalism isn’t the problem—it’s the outdated neoliberal version we’ve been practicing that’s failing us. From the rise of populism to the growing disillusionment among younger generations, the signs of strain are everywhere. But Levine and MacBride reveal how a new consensus—what they call Dynamic Capitalism—is already taking shape, one that balances profit with purpose, empowers the middle class, and addresses the urgent challenges of inequality and climate change.

Through compelling stories of leaders like Jamie Dimon, Dan Schulman, Lisa Green Hall, and Larry Fink, Capital Evolution shows how businesses, governments, and individuals can work together to create an economy that works for everyone. This book is a call to action for pragmatic leaders, policymakers, and citizens alike to embrace change, rebuild trust, and ensure capitalism remains the most dynamic force for progress the world has ever known. The future of capitalism isn’t a choice between old ideologies—it’s about evolving to meet the needs of a new era.

Capital Evolution is a compelling look at the changes taking hold in America’s political system, information environment, and society, asking tough questions about the rising power of businesses in our economic system. Drawing on dozens of interviews with CEOs, academics, employees, and thought leaders, venture capitalist and author Seth Levine and journalist Elizabeth MacBride boldly challenge readers to take a hard look at our divisions and their impact on American economic supremacy.

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 9, 2025

Reviews

[Richard Stuhan · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I acquired “Capital Evolution: The New American Economy,” I found myself impaled on the horns of a dilemma. On the one horn, I have a firm policy of reading all books gifted to me, which this book was. On the other horn, I studiously avoid books dealing with commerce, finance, or money matters. I resolved the dilemma by electing to read the book – in part, because my son, the benefactor, met one of the authors. While the book presents some interesting data and offers some thought-provoking observations, I cannot recommend it – unless you (a) happen to be one of those guys I routinely encounter on airplanes who cannot complete a flight without having a business book on his tray table, (b) are hopelessly woke, or (c) like my son, work for the Fed and actually find money matters interesting.

The authors are Seth Levine, a partner at venture capital firm Foundry, and Elizabeth MacBride, a freelance journalist who reports on finance, technology, and women’s rights. The book’s biography reports that Levine has founded a host of “progressive” organizations, including GoodBread, Pledge 1%, EforAll, and Gary Community Center. MacBride is working on a mid-career Master’s at Johns Hopkins, where she has insisted on taking courses only from women professors.

The authors’ overarching thesis is that American Capitalism, as we have known it, has run its course. I patiently waded through 246 pages of analysis to learn by what measure of economic performance the authors believe that capitalism has failed – e.g., comparative GNP, wealth accumulation, income growth, etc. I never found that answer. Instead, the authors simply assert that capitalism has failed and then move on to articulate what must come next. That approach reminded me of a current KFC commercial. After waxing elegant about his finger-lickin’ good chicken, the Colonel claims that he invented potatoes as a side dish. Expecting a skeptical response, the Colonel then retorts: “No need to look it up; it’s true.” That’s essentially what Levine and MacBride have done.

It turns out that American Capitalism – which the authors call “Shareholder Primacy” Capitalism -- has not failed as an economic system but, rather, has failed to achieve certain non-economic goals that Levine and MacBride deem important. Those goals include reversing growing income and wealth inequality; providing workers a comfortable standard of living (something more than subsistence wages, although what exactly that means is never clearly defined); revitalizing the middle class, which has suffered from globalism and technological advances, especially the emergence of AI; restructuring companies’ relationships with vendors and the communities in which they operate; and, most of all, acting in a more environmentally conscious manner. The problem, they assert, is that, while Capitalism has proven more profitable than any other economic system, businesses are operated solely to maximize the interests of shareholders – as the name “shareholder primacy” suggests – to the detriment of other stakeholders. Instead of the current system, the authors argue, we need a new system, which they call “Dynamic Capitalism.”

If “Dynamic Capitalism” sounds like socialism, that’s because it is -- or at least it’s “Woke Capitalism.” To be sure, Levine and MacBride stop short of advocating full bore Bernie Sanders/Zohran Mamdani collectivism. They do not, for example, endorse Medicare for All, subsidized public college tuition, free public buses, rent freezes, government-owned grocery stores, universal childcare (although they do advocate measuring uncompensated caregiver time, and who knows where that might lead), a $30/hour minimum wage, or confiscatory taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Indeed, the authors repeatedly insist that they seek only to tweak Capitalism, not abolish it.

But that claim rings hollow in view of their endorsement of such concepts as Universal Basic Income, broadening worker ownership through Employee Ownership Trusts, equity-based compensation, “baby bonds” (accounts established by the federal government for every child at birth that would grow tax-free through investments in funds overseen by the U.S. Treasury), and abandoning extractive energy sources in favor of renewable energy alternatives. Levine and MacBride cite as examples of companies that embody “Dynamic Capitalism” Patagonia (motto: “We’re in business to save our home planet”) and Optimax (25% of corporate profits are shared with the workforce). They repeatedly cite with approval organizations like Just Capital, while excoriating Jack Welch and all he stood for. They expressly argue that companies need to establish “values” other than making money. While Levine and MacBride don’t tell us who gets to set the values, all of the values they identify in the book are firmly within “progressive” ideology.

Sensitive to the charge that “Dynamic Capitalism” is Woke Capitalism or thinly disguised Socialism – a charge they repeatedly and vehemently deny – Levine and MacBride suggest that many of the reforms they propose would actually benefit shareholders. For example, treating workers fairly, they argue, would discourage a Bolshevik-style revolution, and operating in an environmentally friendly way would encourage investments from people who favor “sustainable” companies. But if the authors are willing to limit reform to what benefits shareholders, that seems pretty much like the status quo. There is nothing in “Capital Evolution” which suggests that Levine and MacBride are prepared to accept such a limitation. Moreover, even if you were to conclude that their proposals were limited – a characterization that I don’t share – you would have to be concerned that Dynamic Capitalism would put us on the slippery slope to socialism.

Reasonable minds can differ on whether social concerns should trump economic success. But there is a more fundamental problem with the authors’ proposal than deciding what is best for America. The Court of Chancery in Delaware – where most companies are incorporated and on whose laws most other states base their corporate legal framework -- has expressly held that directors have a fiduciary obligation to make their decisions looking SOLELY to the best interests of shareholders. So, even if a company’s leaders WANTED to be more environmentally conscious or worker friendly, the law prevents them from doing so unless their actions are in the best interest of shareholders. Levine and MacBride acknowledge the problem, but give it the back of their hands. “We need to change the law,” they argue. That suggestion is hopelessly naïve. Even more naïve is the authors’ glib assumption that business executives, shareholders, workers, and social justice warriors are going join hands, gather round the campfire, sing Kumbaya, and then abandon an economic system that has made America the richest nation on earth and replace it with “Dynamic Capitalism.”

Apart from its central thesis, “Capital Evolution” has its moments. The book begins with a lengthy summary of American economic history, which I found interesting although somewhat meandering. They divide modern capitalism into two distinct periods. The “Golden Age” began in the wake of the Second World War and ran until 1973. They denominate the period thereafter as the era of “Neoliberal” Capitalism. That era’s Founding Father was Milton Friedman (whom they take every effort to demonize), and its principal evangelist was Ronald Reagan.

Levine and MacBride also articulate some provocative observations. For example, the authors maintain that, with growing distrust in government, business has become the most important institution in American society. While big isn’t necessarily bad for them, they decry the growing influence of asset managers -- noting that the three largest asset managers collectively hold 25% of the voting power of the S&P 500 corporations; Black Rock alone owns 5% or more of the stock of nearly every company on that list. While business ownership becomes more centralized, they report, upward mobility has virtually disappeared. Citing a 2024 movie called “America’s Burning” (I’m not making this up), Levine and MacBride claim that, 50 years ago, a person in the bottom 25% of the “wealth scale” had a 25% chance of moving into the top 25%; today, however, someone in the bottom 25% has only a 5% chance of moving into the top 25%. As the Colonel would tell you, no need to look it up; it’s true. If you can’t trust a movie for economic data, who can you trust?

While Levine and MacBride profess political neutrality, that claim is hard to credit. Indeed, they insist so often that they are nonpartisan (and even apolitical) that it becomes a case of the lady doth protest too much. To be sure, there are passages in which the authors lambast both the Left and the Right for the perceived shortcomings of the status quo. But the failures of the Left are generally addressed in a paragraph, while the Right’s failures get a full chapter. The imbalance becomes more pronounced as the book proceeds. By the epilogue, the authors seem to have dropped any pretense of neutrality. Their criticism of the Trump Administration’s economic policies is about as neutral as your average New York Times column. While Levine and MacBride claim to have “learned to let go of preconceived ideas and [are] willing to be challenged by new perspectives,” their book provides no evidence that they are open-minded. Let me be clear. I am not suggesting that there is anything inherently wrong with having political leanings. My point is that, if you’re a social justice warrior, you ought to be upfront about it. Don’t pretend that you’re neutral when you clearly are not.

I was also unimpressed with their sources (aside, of course, from “America’s Burning”). Except for a handful of data sources, there were relatively few references to learned treatises or academic journals. Instead, the authors’ conclusions appear to be based on interviews they conducted. Levine and MacBride claim that they “talked with dozens of interesting and thoughtful people from varying disciplines, backgrounds, and political persuasions.” But there is no list of the persons interviewed in the book, and the text itself cites interviews from only a handful of like-minded sources.

Beyond the conceptual problems, the book was difficult to navigate. It reads more like a newspaper article than a book. The book is divided into 16 chapters, and each chapter is in turn divided into chunks of 2 to 4 pages. There is lots of repetition, some deliberate (“As we noted in an earlier chapter . . . .”). The narrative is choppy, and there’s no flow from one section to another. The authors’ organizational approach made it difficult for me to keep track of what the main point was in the section I was reading. I frequently found myself turning back to the first page of a chapter to figure out what the theme of that chapter is.

So, if you are a business book aficionado, you’ve booked a flight, and you are looking for something to put on your tray table when the captain turns off the “fasten seatbelts” light, “Capital Evolution” might be a good choice. Otherwise, I recommend that you cuddle up with a novel by Nelson DeMille, John Grisham, or Harlan Coben -- or re-read one of my earlier book reviews.

[Dirks · Rating 3 out of 5]

We’re witnessing neo-capitalism's death throes and capitalisms rather necessary metamorphosis. Drawing from conversations with CEOs, academics, and thought leaders, they paint a picture of businesses increasingly willing to look beyond quarterly earnings reports toward creating sustainable, long-term value for multiple stakeholders, not just shareholders. Whether driven by personal morals, passion, or environmental urgency, values have entered the boardroom.

What makes this book particularly engaging is how it navigates the tension between idealism and pragmatism. The authors distill centuries of economic thought with a light touch, showing when theories like the Invisible Hand and Free Markets have been taken out of context-- and exploring what that means for the modern economy. They acknowledge legitimate debates about the role of government and note that businesses are assuming an ever-greater role in politics.

I also appreciate that the authors walk the talk on intellectual humility: they spotlight corporate stances they personally disagree with and still analyze them fairly, keeping the discourse grounded in the middle. Although this could just be a literary slight-of-hand to keep readers focused on the authors' own solutions, it felt more like a thoughtful opportunity for a personal examination.

In conclusion, "Capital Evolution" is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of capitalism. It offers a balanced and timely look at the challenges and opportunities facing our economic system today.

A thank you to Netgalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing a ALC of this book.

[Micah Mador · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excited to add Capital Evolution to the top of my reading stack. Seth and Elizabeth make a great team and take on a BIG and contentious topic. Their content, candor, and context couldn't come at a better time in the world.

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have selected this book as Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 12/21, as it stands heads above other recently published books on this topic.