I talk a lot about good capitalism. This week I want to talk about the worst version of it America ever produced.

Slavery was not just a moral catastrophe. It was an economic system, and it was engineered by the numbers: what a human being was valued at, how that value was financed and insured, how it was passed down, and how much wealth it created for the people who held the ledger. When you follow the money, you understand why the gap we are still living with today is not an accident either.

This is not a history lesson for its own sake. Understanding bad capitalism is how you recognize it when it shows up in a new suit, and it is how you build the good kind on purpose. I take you through it carefully, and I ask you to sit with the numbers.

Listen with an open mind. Then let’s get to work.

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