We live in the richest societies in human history. So why does it feel like we're falling short of what's possible?
Two of the most original thinkers writing about capitalism and liberalism today — Brink Lindsey and Adrian Wooldridge — have both published major books in 2026 that grapple with exactly that question. Both share a diagnosis — that liberal democratic capitalism has wandered off course — but offer different prescriptions. Neither is calling for revolution. Both believe the system can be fixed. The argument is about how.
In partnership with the Centre for British Progress, and hosted by Rathbones, we are delighted to be bringing Brink and Adrian to London for an evening of conversation, ideas and debate — with the chance for guests to put their own questions directly to both authors.
Brink Lindsey is a senior vice president at the Niskanen Center, named by Time as the most interesting think tank in American politics, and author of The Permanent Problem (Oxford University Press, 2026). His book argues that advanced economies have solved the problem of material scarcity — but have so far failed to build the institutions and communities that would allow that abundance to translate into genuine human flourishing. It is a serious, optimistic and deeply original work from one of America's foremost political economists.
Adrian Wooldridge spent over thirty years at The Economist — as its Lexington, Schumpeter and Bagehot columnist — and is now global business columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. His new book, Centrists of the World Unite! (Penguin, 2026), is a passionate and erudite defence of liberal democratic capitalism at a moment of crisis — and a sharp critique of the liberal establishment that has, in his view, lost the confidence and the ideas needed to defend it.
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