Perspectives on Capitalism, an MBA course now adapted for alumni, aims to add nuance to economic discussions.
- By
- September 08, 2026
- Alumni Stories
How Booth Alumni Are Rethinking Capitalism
Dan Lasman, MBA ’78, arrived at Chicago Booth when free-market capitalism was gospel. It was the peak of the Chicago School of Economics: Milton Friedman, AM ’33, then a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, had recently argued that a business’s only social responsibility is to maximize profits. A few years later, George J. Stigler, PhD ’38 (Economics), would become Booth’s first Nobel laureate for his pioneering research on regulatory capture, the idea that industries and companies can bend government regulation to their benefit.
“It was ‘Capitalism is the best way to allocate scarce resources,’” Lasman says. “There’s no system that’s more efficient.” But Lasman, a retired CFO, recently noticed his two millennial children had become skeptical of capitalism. “I felt very out of touch with where the conversation is today,” he says.
So when Chicago Booth started offering the Perspectives on Capitalism course to alumni, Lasman signed up. “I felt it was a great opportunity to get caught up on what the current thinking is,” he says.
Perspectives on Capitalism was originally developed as an MBA course by Robert H. Gertner, the Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Strategy, and James Carmichael, MBA/AM ’10, adjunct assistant professor of strategy. Since 2023, Gertner and Carmichael have also offered the course to alumni through the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, for which Gertner also serves as the John Edwardson Faculty Director. The course is part of the school’s Back to Booth offerings and supported by the Fred G. Steingraber/Kearney Endowment, which is dedicated to lifelong learning for alumni.
The next Perspectives on Capitalism alumni course runs from October to February 2027. The virtual course features biweekly discussion group meetings, along with opening and closing sessions led by Carmichael and Gertner. Enrollment is currently open for the next session, closing on September 27. It’s open to all alumni and costs $250.
A Course That Broadens Views
Gertner wanted to create the Perspectives on Capitalism MBA course to foster more nuanced, thoughtful conversations around capitalism.
“Lots of the discussions around capitalism were very bimodal,” Gertner says. “People were attacking capitalism in ways that seemed somewhat poorly informed, or were pro-capitalism in a very knee-jerk way.”
Given the breadth of the topic, Gertner knew he couldn’t teach the course alone. He invited professors from across Booth and UChicago to give lectures on different aspects of capitalism. The guests included renowned economists—such as Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler, the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics Emeritus, and Kevin M. Murphy, PhD ’86 (Economics), the George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics Emeritus—as well as notable academics from diverse fields, including philosophy and sociology.
Students also read texts from a wide-ranging list that they discussed in weekly seminars. The readings include formative historical texts like Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto, as well as influential economic papers by Friedman, Stigler, and others. To give students a comprehensive view of capitalism’s influence, the readings also draw more widely from culture, including writer Joan Didion’s essay “The Seacoast of Despair” and the opera Utopia, Limited; or, the Flowers of Progress by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.
“It’s about interrogating the ideas in the readings. It’s not really about practical deliverables.”
— James Carmichael
“It’s more like a graduate seminar than a business school course,” Carmichael says. “It’s about interrogating the ideas in the readings. It’s not really about practical deliverables. But for the students who take it, these are questions that are very much on their mind about their careers and their choices.”
From the first offering in spring 2022, the course quickly became popular among students. But Gertner and Carmichael felt it could be valuable beyond a Booth classroom. With the reading list already in hand and lectures already recorded for remote students, they realized they could easily adapt it for alumni as an online course. The Rustandy Center offered the first alumni iteration in fall 2023.
The alumni course essentially functions as a reading group. Every two weeks, small groups meet virtually to discuss a thematic set of texts, along with a filmed lecture from one of the MBA course speakers. And while Gertner and Carmichael hold virtual opening and closing sessions, the alumni groups largely direct their discussions around the topics that interest them.
How the Discussion Groups Connect Alumni
Lasman, the retired CFO, found himself reevaluating his own perspective throughout the course—like when he reread Friedman’s influential essay on maximizing corporate profits.
“When I read it as a student, I probably thought, ‘Well, this makes a lot of sense,’” he says. “Rereading it in 2023, it sounded out of touch with the reality of the human and environmental issues and complexities we face today.”
Like Lasman, Ingrid Tierens, MBA ’95, PhD ’96, also felt the conversation about capitalism had evolved significantly since her time at Booth. The course gave her an opportunity to revisit foundational ideas after three decades working in global financial markets and view them against a very different world than the one she studied in.
Tierens, the head of data strategy for Goldman Sachs’s global investment research team, was placed in the same discussion group as Lasman, along with alumni from across North America, including both coasts, as well as South America and Europe.
“What surprised me most was how much I learned from the other participants,” she says. “People came from different industries, countries, and stages of their careers, so we’d often read the same material quite differently. Those discussions were often as interesting as the readings themselves.”
“This course gave me an opportunity to step back and think more broadly about the impact businesses and individuals can have on communities.”
— Prakash Ramani
Tierens and Lasman’s group continued to connect after the course ended and even included Gertner in one of their discussions. They still maintain an active WhatsApp group where members share articles and opinions on current events and check in on each other’s lives. They also meet in person from time to time when schedules and travel happen to align.
Prakash Ramani, MBA ’22 (XP-91), took Perspectives on Capitalism in 2025 after a 17-year career at Intel Corporation, as he began exploring the next chapter of his professional journey. He says the course made him think about ideas he previously hadn’t considered, such as the value of community in an economy or the role of the nonprofit.
“Working in a corporate environment, you can become deeply focused on the immediate goals in front of you,” Ramani says. “This course gave me an opportunity to step back and think more broadly about the impact businesses and individuals can have on communities.”
The course discussions inspired Ramani to begin volunteering and continue to shape how he thinks about the kind of effect he wants to create in his next professional role.
“To me, this course is a course on life,” he says. “Personally and professionally, it helped me develop a lot.”
Since taking the course in 2023, Tierens has made a point of encouraging other PhD alumni and people she knows from Booth to enroll.
“Like most professionals, I wasn’t looking for another commitment on my calendar,” she says. “But the structure was manageable, and it was well worth the time. There’s no better way to do this than alongside fellow Booth alumni. You end up learning as much from the people in the virtual room as from the readings, and you come away with a more nuanced view of capitalism and relationships that continue long after the course ends.”
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