What steps need to be taken? Are current problems built into the system, or is it a matter of mismanagement?

I would say a lot of the current issues with fraud, irresponsibility and environmental degradation are not 'necessary evils' of capitalism, but stem from a lack of ethical leadership in government and business: a failure to make values like craftsmanship, conservation, and good citizenship a priority, while championing profit, growth and status display above all else.

Essentially, we've let capitalism overshadow democracy. The ultimate expression of capitalism, unchecked by democratic values and public oversight, is caste feudalism. Much as we like to talk about free markets, a market left to its own devices does not remain free: wealth attracts wealth and seeks more, exerting the least necessary effort while taking every possible measure to fix exchange in its favor. If the only rule is survival of the fittest, then might makes right. It's only through government oversight or periodic revolution that such an outcome is avoided.

Our mistake since the Nixon era has been to take up capitalism as our value system and democracy as a means to promote it. The situation needs to be reversed.

That's my $1.05, who wants to take up for unfettered capitalism? Outright socialism? Other?