The AFL-CIO will be hosting two powerful Book Club events in Washington, D.C., that will help explain the current state of the U.S. economy, income inequality and the politics of austerity. 

On Monday, April 15, from 3-5 p.m., Nobel Prize-winning author Joseph Stiglitz will discuss his book The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future. RSVP for the event. The wealthiest 1% of Americans now control 40% of our wealth. But this stark inequality is not inevitable. It was crafted by moneyed interests over decades. Stiglitz examines how we got into this condition, its threats to democracy and our economy and how we can find a better path.

On Tuesday, April 16, from 12-2 p.m., Robert Kuttner will talk about his book Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility. RSVP for the event. Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and distinguished senior fellow at Demos, writes that debt is the wrong economic focus today and austerity is the wrong solution. Austerity, he demonstrates, serves only the interests of the bankers and financial elites who crashed our economy while holding back the economy the rest of us live in every day.

If you're in the Washington, D.C., area, please RSVP and join us.