The U.S. Oligarchy

The wealth defense industry protects the richest of the rich.

In 2005, Citigroup offered its high net-worth clients in the United States a concise statement of the threats they and their money faced.

The report told them they were the leaders of a “plutonomy,” an economy driven by the spending of its ultra-rich citizens. “At the heart of plutonomy is income inequality,” which is made possible by “capitalist-friendly governments and tax regimes.”The danger, according to Citigroup’s analysts, is that “personal taxation rates could rise – dividends, capital gains, and inheritance taxes would hurt the plutonomy.”

Read the rest at In These Times | With Liberty and Justice for All
Oligarchy in the U.S.A.
by Jeffrey A. Winters | Associate Professor of political science, Northwestern University. For a more extensive explanation of his theory of oligarchy, read Oligarchy (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

Good article on oligarchic plutonomy in the US, explaning the extraordinary privilege of the 0.01% in a liberal democracy. Winter's explanation accords well with Ravi Batra's historical explanation, and demonstrates how the US is now in an acquisitor era.