Could President Hillary Clinton restore the American middle class?

On Monday, during her first major economic policy speech, Mrs. Clinton offered an informed diagnosis of the troubles afflicting “everyday Americans” struggling to get ahead.

Her prescriptions to help workers share more equitably in the fruits of economic growth are grounded in top-notch economic research. Yet for all the scholarship, the economic agenda outlined by Mrs. Clinton, the top Democratic contender for the presidency, still fails to measure up to the nature of the challenge.

“Previous generations of Americans built the greatest economy and strongest middle class the world has ever known on the promise of a basic bargain: If you work hard and do your part, you should be able to get ahead,” Mrs. Clinton declared.

The task, she continued, is to take that promise — eroded by corporate consolidation and technological change, and also battered by hundreds of millions of workers from China entering the global economy to compete with American labor — and “make it strong again.”