Irwin Stelzer is Director of Economic Policy Studies at Hudson Institute, a Sunday Times (London) columnist, and a thinker who combines wisdom about politics with penetrating insights into economics. In this Conversation, Stelzer shares his perspective on threats to American democratic capitalism, including the “feeling that compensation and performance have become disconnected.” To address these current challenges, Stelzer calls for a more political approach to economics—one which is both mindful of the limitations of economics and considers the political consequences of distributional inequities. In sum, Stelzer offers a spirited defense of democratic capitalism: “not because of the goods and services it produces, but because of the freedom that it has produced.”