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In the wake of the global economic crisis, what does capitalism mean to us today? In this humorous and informative talk, Colm O’Regan, stand-up comedian and regular contributor to In The Balance, asks what people really understand about capitalism. Discussion of the subject has become more popular, following the publication of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, as people try to make sense of an economic system seemingly run by powerful computers, capable of number-crunching in ways most people struggle to understand.

In his quest to understand the last 150 years of economic theory and to explain one of the biggest subjects of our time, Colm enlists the help of participants at the annual Kilkenomics Festival of economics and comedy in Kilkenny, Ireland. He speaks to the experts at the festival, canvasses opinion from people visiting Wall Street and turns to social media in search of a crowd-sourced explanation to his question – What does Capitalism mean to you?

Colm tells the story of capitalism with contributions from Ha Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, Peter Antonioni, co-author of Economics for Dummies, John Lanchester, author of How To Speak Money, David McWilliams, one of Ireland’s leading economic commentators and co-founder of Kilkenomics, Deirdre McCloskey of Chicago University and former associate of Milton Friedman, and Mark Blyth, professor of international political economy at Brown University.