Cover of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

by Chrystia Freeland · 2012

+ Want to read

In the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Forget the 1%; it's the wealthiest .01% who are fast outpacing the rest of us. Today's colossal fortunes are amassed by the diligent toiling of smart, perceptive businessmen who see themselves as deserving victors in a cutthroat international competition.

Read more

Cracking open this tight-knit world is Chrystia Freeland, an acclaimed business journalist. At ease in Davos or Dubai, Freeland has reported on the lives and minds of these new super-elites for nearly a decade. Grounding her interviews in the economics and history of modern capitalism, she provides examples of the new wealth and its consequences. She showcases the $3 million birthday party of a New York financier months before the financial meltdown; details the closed-door 2005 SEC meeting where the US government allowed investment banks to write their own regulatory laws; and tells how the Bank of Canada's Mark Carney became a key figure in the central battle between the plutocracy and the rest of us.

Brightly written and powerfully researched, Freeland's Plutocrats will be a lightning rod event in the midst of the US election season.

Subject
economicseconomicsMore like thisLess of thispoliticspoliticsMore like thisLess of thisbusinessbusinessMore like thisLess of thissociologysociologyMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of this
Themes
politicspoliticsMore like thisLess of thisjournalistsjournalistsMore like thisLess of thiseconomicseconomicsMore like thisLess of thiswealthwealthMore like thisLess of thissocial justicesocial justiceMore like thisLess of this
Setting
CanadaCanadaMore like thisLess of thisEnglandEnglandMore like thisLess of thisUSAUSAMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
medium · 352 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare pricesHardcover

Liked Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few Robert B. Reich · 2004 Shares economics, nonfiction, politics
  2. Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America Matt Taibbi · 2010 Shares nonfiction, economics, politics
  3. The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era Michael Grunwald · 2012 Shares nonfiction, politics, economics
  4. Utopia for Realists: Why Making the World a Better Place Isn't a Fantasy and How We Can Do It Rutger Bregman · 2016 Shares nonfiction, economics, politics
See more recommendations →

“People who read Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else tend to reach for these next.”

  1. What′s the Matter with White People? Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was Joan Walsh · 2012
  2. The Servant Economy: Where America's Elite is Sending the Middle Class Geoffrey P. Faux, David Faber · 2012
  3. Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America Charles Ferguson · 2012
  4. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power Steve Coll · 2012

“If you want more of the same (economics about politics), start with these.”

  1. When Corporations Rule the World David C. Korten · 1995
  2. The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream Tyler Cowen
  3. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson · 2012
  4. Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back Douglas Rushkoff · 2009

“If it was the politics that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man John Perkins · 2004
  2. Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust Darrell West · 2014
  3. Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life Robert B. Reich · 2007
  4. The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives Michael Heller · 2008

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Tower of Basel: The Inside Story of the Central Bankers' Secret Bank Adam LeBor · 2013
  2. Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business Rana Foroohar · 2016
  3. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World Liaquat Ahamed · 2009
  4. Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves Mike Mayo · 2011

Report a problem