Oligarchy

Adam Smith: The Vile Maxim

"You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both." Louis Brandeis
" It has been true all through history, the way you get a small group of people to be very rich is by getting a lot of other people to be very poor." Michael Parenti
"There are many other ways in which the government structures the market to redistribute income upward. Read my non-copyright protected book, The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer to get more of the picture." Dean Baker (read it on-line.)
As more and more wealth concentrates at the top, the moneyed interests rationally fear that democratic majorities will take it away through higher taxes, stricter regulations (on everything from trade to climate change), enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, pro-union initiatives and price controls. So they’re sinking ever more of their wealth into anti-democracy candidates. Donald Trump is going full fascist these days and gaining the backing of prominent billionaires.
Billionaires are lining up to fund Donald Trump’s anti-democratic agenda (11/21/2023)
It is baffling to me how supporters of President Trump can claim anti-elitism as a reason for voting for him. The combined wealth of the Trump family and administration cabinet members (Perdue, Ross, Chao, DeVos, Mnuchin, Carson, for example) is staggering. These are the people who make decisions that affect us every day, yet their wealth and elite status do not seem to concern Trump followers. Do these voters ever question the motives and actions of that elite group? Gail Minthorn, Wilton, Conn. (letter to the New York Times)
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule -- at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it. Gilens and Page
“There is class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning” Warren Buffet
A recent poll of the super-wealthy shows that compared with ordinary voters, the rich place a much higher priority on deficit reduction than on combating high unemployment. Their support for Social Security and Medicare is weaker than their compatriots, and they are opposed to the very tax changes most Americans support. Recent political science studies also suggest little or no responsiveness of political leaders to the opinions of the middle class when they conflict with the opinions of those at the top.
Jacob s. Hacker and Paul Pierson
Wealth concentrates because the return on capital tends to exceed the general rate of economic growth. Since income broadly tracks wealth, economies become relentlessly more unequal over time.
TIME FOR SOCIALISM Dispatches From a World on Fire, 2016-2021 By Thomas Piketty
Sarah Churchwell ... in her book Behold, America (2018). The first widely disseminated use of “American dream,” ... appeared in the New York Post in 1900. It was a warning about the threat posed by super-rich tycoons to the very existence of the American system of government. “Discontented multimillionaires,” it warned, form the “greatest risk” to “every republic.” All previous republics, it noted, had been “overthrown by rich men” and this could happen too in America, where the tycoons were “deriding the constitution, unrebuked by the executive or by public opinion.” If they had their way “it would be the end of the American dream.” ...The American republic has come close to being overthrown by a discontented multimillionaire. Biden failed to say with sufficient force that America needed not to go from nightmare to dream, but to wake up to the urgent meaning of that threat.” The New York Review of Books 12/3/2020 “Democracy’s Afterlife”
Billionaires should not exist. Senator Bernie Sanders

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Can democracy survive now the world’s richest man has it in his sights?
George Monbiot in the Guardian (11/2/2024)

Do very wealthy people tend to be fascists ?

What Can’t Be Said: Billionaires Are the Biggest Threat (11/3/2024)

6 Billionaire Fortunes Bankrolling Project 2025 (8/14/2024)

Billionaire first to reach $100m in election donations – to Trump and RFK Jr (6/21/2024)

Why is a group of billionaires working to re-elect Trump? (6/3/2024)

Will American Democracy Survive the Age of Oligarchs? (10/30/2023)

Hard Right Billionaires are Spending Lavishly to Reshape State and Federal Courts (10/26/2023)

Oligarchs run Russia. But guess what? They run the US as well Bernie Sanders in the Guardian

Even in a Pandemic, the Billionaires Are Winning (11/25/2020)

Rich white men rule America. How much longer will we tolerate that? (5/20/2019)

Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy

Oligopoly vs Democracy is a struggle repeated throughout recorded history. The iron law of oligarchy "asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable "

Wealth Inequality

Citizens United

Republican Scam

Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

GOP Keeps People Down

Right Wing

Conservatives

Republicans

Economy

Corporations

Fascism

Links

Iron Law of Oligarchy

Too Much

Who Rules America ?

Who Rules ?

Iron Law of Oligarchy

Heritage Foundation

The One Party Planet: who rules ?

Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States: Emmanuel Saez, UC Berkeley: September 3, 2013 (pdf)

Aristocracy

Welfare State for the Rich

Inside Philanthropy

Ponerology

A small number of people, some head petro States, tech titans, large corporate CEOs, own much of the world’s wealth, when that happens oligarchs rule. They spend lavishly on propaganda on a world-wide scale, resulting in authoritarian regimes in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Philippines, US, etc. A new axis. Ominous.

"To preserve their position of privilege, they frequently fight democracy." Oligarchs want government too weak to do oversight of financial transactions, tax law, offshore wealth, unions, consumer, industrial conditions, labor, ...

It seems we are back to a 1929 - like economy, a new gilded age.

Scholars agree. The US is a plutocracy.

Trump did not win election on his own. He had a lot of help from other oligarchs: Putin, Mercer, Murdoch, Zuckerberg, Koch, Adelson, MbS, and other wealthy GOP campaign donors some of whom went on to cabinet positions.

For anyone paying attention, it is obvious that our Congress is no longer responsive to the people. It mostly serves monied interests. Serious academic studies: Gilens and Page of Princeton, Lawrence Lessig’s book “Republic Lost”, Hacker and Pierson in Winner Take All Politics, or Noam Chomsky’s book Failed States agree that Congress responds to funders, not people.

The wealthy, including the churches, do not have the same concerns as the great majority: they are not inclined to want healthcare for everyone, good education for all qualified, or strong social programs. They regard extreme income inequality as only natural and will do nothing to remedy it. Instead, they want reduced taxes and minimal social supports. They are militarists, disdain international organizations, and retreat to gated communities, and now want a wall on the border. They are the motivators of the Republican agenda which has no interest in serving the majority of the people. The Constitution, Elections, media, Courts and other institutions are rigged to preserve rule by a wealthy GOP minority. They attack democracy and all of its supports.

Our dysfunctional government, run by an irresponsible billionaire elite, a symptom of bad ideas and failure of leadership. Long-term problems are not addressed by the GOP, including the threat of climate change, deteriorating infrastructure, the nuclear danger, market volatility, income inequality, sinking middle class, military-industrial complex, endless war, or election flaws.

Concentrated media does not discuss economic fairness even though the US is experiencing pathological, extreme income inequality. Trump is a reflection of a Republican party funded by oligarchs. They are uninterested in policy, expertize, or governing for the well-being of anyone but themselves. The U.S. is an oligarchy with all of the attributes of a Fascist State.

Inequality is the result of policy choice, not accident. Republican policies including the Reagan and Bush tax cuts, downsizing of the social safety net, deregulation unleashing 'free-market' forces, privatization, busting labor unions, restraint of government, Congress' dependence on funders, and corporate welfare.

It is just as important to have checks and balances on concentration in private hands as it is in public. Republicans don't enforce anti-trust law.

Any time an oligarch arises in an industry, that is the sign of market failure. Even market fundamentalists should agree that a market is only free when there are many competitors. Corporate concentration is relentless, it stamps out competition, produces oligarchs, and exacerbates income inequality.

We may lose our republic thanks to Republicans. (See Supreme Court)

Loosely defined, fascism or Feudalism is rule by the very wealthy.

The Golden Rule: He who has the gold rules.
" ... the elements are in place: a weak legislative body, a legal system that is both compliant and repressive, a party system in which one party, whether in opposition or in the majority, is bent upon reconstituting the existing system so as to permanently favor a ruling class of the wealthy, the well-connected and the corporate, while leaving the poorer citizens with a sense of helplessness and political despair, and, at the same time, keeping the middle classes dangling between fear of unemployment and expectations of fantastic rewards once the new economy recovers. That scheme is abetted by a sycophantic and increasingly concentrated media; by the integration of universities with their corporate benefactors; by a propaganda machine institutionalized in well-funded think tanks and conservative foundations; by the increasingly closer cooperation between local police and national law enforcement agencies aimed at identifying terrorists, suspicious aliens and domestic dissidents."
Sheldon Wolin: Inverted Totalitarianism
It seems relevant that the walled city where the wealthy few live in relative luxury while the masses outside war with one another for survival is pretty much the default premise of every dystopian sci-fi movie that gets made these days, from “The Hunger Games,” with the decadent Capitol versus the desperate colonies, to “Elysium,” with its spa-like elite space station hovering above a sprawling and lethal favela. It's a vision deeply enmeshed with the dominant Western religions, with their grand narratives of great floods washing the world clean and a chosen few selected to begin again. It's the story of the great fires that sweep in, burning up the unbelievers and taking the righteous to a gated city in the sky. We have collectively imagined this extreme winners-and-losers ending for our species so many times that one of our most pressing tasks is learning to imagine other possible ends to the human story in which we come together in crisis rather than split apart, take down borders rather than erect more of them: Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need, www.noisnotenough.org
A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little. the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the financial wealth of the nation, while the bottom 60 percent owns all of 2.3 percent. A progressive tax system which asks the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes, and which ends the outrageous loopholes that enable one out of four corporations to pay nothing in federal income taxes. Senator Bernie Sanders
...changes in government policy, Hacker and Pierson argue, account for the radical change in the distribution of American wealth. This isn't the rich getting richer because they're smarter or working harder. It is the connected getting richer because their lobbyists are working harder. No Political philosophy - liberal, libertarian, or conservative --should be ok with that." Lawrence Lessig: Republic, Lost (p157)
...when Americans with different income levels differ in their policy preferences, actual policy outcomes strongly reflect the preferences of the most affluent but bear virtually no relationship to the preferences of poor or middle-income Americans. The vast discrepancy I find in government responsiveness to citizens with different incomes stands in stark contrast to the ideal of political equality that Americans hold dear. Although perfect political equality is an unrealistic goal, representational biases of this magnitude call into question the very democratic character of our society. Martin Gilens
"It should be no surprise that when rich men take control of the government, they pass laws that are favorable to themselves. The surprise is that those who are not rich vote for such people, even though they should know from bitter experience that the rich will continue to rip off the rest of us." Andrew Greeley (Chicago Sun-Times, February 18, 2001)
"'The ruling classes have in their hands the army, money, the schools, the churches and the press. In the schools they kindle patriotism in the children by means of histories describing their own people as the best of all peoples and always in the right. Among adults they kindle it by spectacles, jubilees, monuments, and by a lying patriotic press.'" (Tolstoy, Government is Violence - Essays on Anarchism and Pacifism, Phoenix Press, 1990, p.82)
“The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight.” — Michael Lind, To Have and to Have Not
"The ruling elites, the members of the corporatocracy, bear a disturbing resemblance to the shah of Iran and those other dictators we empowered. Unlike the elected presidents, premiers, or prime ministers, they are not chosen by the people, do not serve limited terms, and answer to no one (they profess to report to boards of directors, but they all serve on each other's boards and are mutually supportive). They wield tremendous influence in the halls of both local and national governments. Almost no politician gets elected without money that flows through them and their stockholders. They control the mainstream media, either through direct ownership or advertising budgets." John Perkins book Hoodwinked pg 49

Oligarchy v. Democracy In the Age of a Pandemic

People work very hard and they’re still not moving up. And then, the elites use the security narrative to cement their hold on the people who are losing ground economically by bringing them together and saying, we have to come together in our nationalist fervor to ward off threats to the United States as a country. It should be said that the threats are not only manufactured abroad. That is, there are foreign enemies that are stoked, but they’re also domestic. In the case of Trump, the domestic enemies usually include people of color, liberals of a variety of kind, leftists, socialists, you hear more and more about AOC and Bernie Sanders-style socialism, Black Lives Matter. The overall thrust is to make people feel that they depend on elites for safety, that nothing is more important than security, and that only the existing elites are capable of delivering that. And I think that is Trump’s primary way of using fear because people are already scared of their economic situation, of the social violence in the country, and so forth. And so, he can stoke this violence very effectively to develop what I call the “security narrative,” which is very dominant right now. Charles Derber

America’s billionaire class is funding anti-democratic forces (5/23/2022) Robert Reich in the Guardian

Anand Giridharadas: Stop Spreading the Plutocrats’ Phony Religion (10/16/2019)

Why Are Rich People So Mean? Call it 'Rich Asshole Syndrome'—the tendency to distance yourself from people with whom you have a large wealth differential. (9/26/2019)

Is America Becoming an Oligarchy? (4/14/2019)

Privilege and the ‘let them eat cake’ Trump administration (1/25/2019)

Lewis Lapham: Can America Survive the Rule of a “Stupified Plutocracy”? video youtube.

Meet the ‘Change Agents’ Who Are Enabling Inequality (8/18/2018)

Bernie Sanders: American Oligarchy Keeps Progressive Policies From Advancing (5/19/2018)

World's witnessing a new Gilded Age as billionaires’ wealth swells to $6tn (10/26/2017)

Why Do So Many Super Rich Despise the Poor? (10/5/2017)

The Ethical Bankruptcy of the US Ruling Elites Paved Way for Trump (9/22/2016)

New Thinking on Rescuing Our Politics from Plutocrats (1/20/2016)

For hundreds of years rich people have used racism and xenophobia to convince poor people that rich people are not the problem. David Hogg
Where there is the possibility of democracy, there is the inevitability of elite insecurity. All through its history, democracy has been under a sustained attack by elite interests, political, economic, and cultural. There is a simple reason for this: democracy – as in true democracy – places power with people. In such circumstances, the few who hold power become threatened. With technological changes in modern history, with literacy and education, mass communication, organization and activism, elites have had to react to the changing nature of society – locally and globally. The Propaganda System That Has Helped Create a Permanent Overclass Is Over a Century in the Making
"The Republicans have a pretty simple philosophy: they say if those at the top have more — more power for Wall Street players to do whatever they want and more money for tax cuts than somehow they can be counted on to build the economy for everyone else. Well, we tried it for 30 years and it didn’t work. In fact the consequences were nearly catastrophic." Elizabeth Warren
The people who are risk-averse are the rich, who become like Fafnir in Wagner's Ring. You know in Wagner's Ring, the gold is cursed. The two brothers fight each other over the gold. Fasolt gets killed. And Fafnir gets the gold and what does he do? (From the viewer's point of view for the next 12 hours in Valkyrie and Siegfried,...) In real life, for a long time, until Siegfried becomes mature, he sits immobilized, having turned himself into a dragon guarding the gold. So what was the gold for?" Leon Botstein, President of Bard College.
The priorities of the wealthy and powerful show up not only in the premature focus on deficit reduction, but in the way austerity seems likely to be targeted. A genuine effort to combat long-term deficits would address the myriad ways, documented by Stiglitz and many others, in which the federal government subsidizes economic behavior that has real costs for our society—whether by failing to require companies to pay a tax on their carbon emissions or allowing billionaire hedge fund managers to pay taxes at rates far lower than those affecting middle-class families. Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson
...The Feedback loop between money, politics, and ideas is both cause and consequence of the of the rise of the super-elite. But economic forces matter, too. Globalization and the technology revolution - and the worldwide economic growth they are creating - are fundamental drivers of the rise of the plutocrats. Even rent-seeking plutocrats - those who owe their fortunes chiefly to favorable government decisions - have also been enriched partly by this growing global economic pie. Christia Freeland: Plutocrats.

"Don't trust someone who wants to take something that we all share and profit from equally and give it to someone else to profit from exclusively." Mike Bergan (quoted in Jeremy Rifkin's 'Zero Marginal Cost Society' pg 190.

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."  Einstein on Politics, Rowe and Schulmann. Monthly Review, May 1949.

The most obvious criticism of the New Overclass is that their political machine is undemocratic. Using subversive techniques once aimed at communists, and with all the money they ever need to succeed, the Overclass undemocratically controls our government, our media, and even a growing part of academia. These institutions in turn allow the Overclass to control the supposedly "free" market. It doesn't win all the time, of course — witness Bill Clinton's impeachment trial — but it does score an endless string of other victories elsewhere, all to the detriment of workers, consumers, women, minorities and the poor. We need to fight it with everything we've got. Steve Kangas

...modern elites tend to "exercise power irresponsibly, precisely because they recognize so few obligations to their predecessors or to the communities they profess to lead. Their lack of gratitude disqualifies meritocratic elites from the burden of leadership, and in any case, they are less interested in leadership than escaping from the common lot--- the very definition of meritocratic success" Christopher Lasch: The Revolt of the Elites and Betrayal of Democracy 1995
However we look at it, the wealthy few use the relentless mechanism of commercialism to trample democracy, the natural environment, and the common good. Our grievances are many, and the power of citizenship, community, and national pride should be enough to mobilize the population to organize resistance and change." Breaking through power : it's easier than we think: Ralph Nader.
"The Triumph of the Corporate Rich," reflects the success of the wealthy few in defeating all of their rivals (e.g., organized labor, liberals, environmentalists) over the course of the past 35 years. G. William Domhoff: Who Rules America ?

there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents. Formerly bodily powers gave place among the aristoi. But since the invention of gunpowder has armed the weak as well as the strong with missile death, bodily strength, like beauty, good humor, politeness and other accomplishments, has become but an auxiliary ground of distinction. There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class. The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society. And indeed it would have been inconsistent in creation to have formed man for the social state, and not to have provided virtue and wisdom enough to manage the concerns of the society. May we not even say that that form of government is the best which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of these natural aristoi into the offices of government? The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent it's ascendancy. Thomas Jefferson

The Billionaire Class won the 2016 Election.

How to cover the one percent (1/2016)

How the Super-Rich Threaten US Democracy (9/10/2015)

Colleges, Churches and Non-Profits Doing the Wealthy's Dirty Work (4/7/2015)

As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes (1/23/2015)

Who Rules the World ? (11/20/2014)

Our Invisible Rich (9/28/2014)

The Rise of the Non-Working Rich (7/15/2014)

This Just In: US Ruled By The Rich (5/16/2014)

Bernie Sanders Asks the Fed Chair Whether the US is an Oligarchy ? (5/9/2014)

Government: Protection Racket For the 1% (4/23/2014)

What Do The Koch Brothers Really Want: Senator Bernie Sanders (4/11/2014)

The 20 Richest Americans Are Greedy Takers—Not Inspirational 'Makers' (1/26/2014)

Business Elites Are Waging Brutal Class War in America (11/24/2013)

5 Ways Super-Rich Are Betraying America (11/3/2013)

Revolt of the Rich (10/18/2013) Mike Lofgren

Top U.S. political donors in 2012 among country's richest men (10/1/2013)

Plutocrats Have Become Sociopaths with Their Persecution Complexes (9/27/2013)

Underwriting Executive Excess (9/24/2013)

Makers, Takers, Fakers (1/28/2013)

How The Rich Are Destroying The US Economy (1/29/2013)

How the Billionaire Class is Destroying Democracy (1/19/2013)

The Rule Of Money (9/20/2012)

Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a brutal strain of Aristocrats have come to rule America (6/28/2012)

Why Elites Fail (6/2012)Romney as Marie Antoinette

How Shameless Oligarchs Plunder our world: From 1990's Russia to Present-day Oklahoma (5/28/2012)

Who Are the 1% ?

Have The Super-Rich Seceded From The United States ? (1/5/2012)

Cool Dudes (8/2/2011)

GOP Sides With Millionaires (Again) 12/2/2011

How The GOP Became The Party of the Rich (11/9/2011)

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior (11/8/2011)

Corporate Media ignores Herman Cain's Koch Connections (10/14/2011)


AMY GOODMAN: David, Mitt Romney continually talks about "redistribution" as a bad word—

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: —a code kind of word in talking about President Obama.

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: And, in fact, we have redistribution in this country, but it is very much upward. You know, the phrase "trickle-down" was invented to mock Ronald Reagan’s tax policies. But the reality is, it’s not trickle-down, it’s Amazon-up, Niagara-up. And all you have to do is look at the data. From 1961 through 2007, the bottom 90 percent of Americans saw their income rise little tiny amount. But if you’re in the top top group of America, the plutocrat class, for every dollar that each person in the bottom 90 percent got after taxes, you got $35.50—$36.50. Your taxes, if you’re in the plutocrat class, fell from a mid-40 percent range down to where Romney is, 15 percent or so. In 2009, we had six people, according to IRS data, who made over $200 million, who paid no income taxes. And we have people who make billion-dollar incomes and can pay no income taxes because of the rules we have that allow people who are hedge fund managers and private equity managers, like Bain & Company, which was the sole property of Mitt Romney, to defer all of their income. Now, how do they live? Just the same way that the guys who create the internet companies, who take a small salary, and the company pays no dividend, are able to afford their private jets and their mansions: they borrow against their untaxed assets. And they get to live a great life, and . . . —you and I pick up the bill. (From Democracy Now! )

Oligarchy, American Style (11/3/2011)

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has a somewhat different take on taxes. Pundits have anointed Huntsman the most “reasonable” candidate in the 2012 GOP Presidential field, and the one-time ambassador to China, a near billionaire himself, is certainly doing his best to give his fellow wealthy plenty of reasons to rally his way. Huntsman last week announced his campaign tax plan. He wants to drop the top federal income tax rate from 35 to 23 percent and erase taxes on dividends and capital gains from wheeling and dealing stocks and other assets. This dividend and capital gains tax break alone, the Tax Policy Center calculates, would save America’s richest 0.1 percent an average $486,000 a year in taxes. From Too Much.

Six Banks Control 60% of GNP

Wealthiest 1% Rule Our Politics, But There's Hope In the Fight Against Global Capital.

(Note the next two paragraphs shamelessly taken from notes to 100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World: John Tirman.

list of the wealthy from Forbes. On executive pay, see the remarkable PBS show, “Now,” which did this segment on the issue.

On charitable giving worldwide, check out this eye-opening article from Inter-Press Service, noting that the heathens are more generous than the faithful. Here is an interesting web site from Boston College on wealth and philanthropy. “The people that give the most actually make the least. Households earning under $10,000 a year -- far below the poverty line -- gave 5.2% of their income to charity. That's a larger percentage of their money than any other income group,” says JustGive.org.

Video/Film

Noam Chomsky: Who Owns the World? Resistance and Ways Forward (11/2/2012) video about an hour.

The American Ruling Class (Watch it free on-line).

Bibliography

American Oligarchs: Trump, Kushner and the melding of money and power Andrea Bernstein

The Fracturing of the American Corporate Elite by Mark Mizruchi

It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders

Capital without Borders, Wealth Managers and the One Percent by Brooke Harrington

American Oligarchs, The Kushners, the Trumps, and The Marriage of Power and Money, WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein

Monopolized, Life in the Age of Corporate Power, by David Dayen

The Meritocracy Trap, How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite: Daniel Markovits

Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer: Dean Baker (download the free pdf)

Plutocrats United by Richard Hasen

Twilight of the Elites, America After Meritocracy: Christopher Hayes

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

Thomas Piketty Is Right, Everything you need to know about 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century' By Robert M. Solow April 22, 2014

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Anand Giridharadas

Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil, Psychopathy, and the Origins of Totalitarianism by Andrew M. Lobaczewski

The Servant Economy: Where America's Elite is Sending the Middle Class: Jeff Faux

American Oligarchy, The permanent Political Class: Ron Formisano

Nation on the Take, How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy: Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman

FIRE AND FURY, Inside the Trump White House: Michael Wolff

Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead, Ray D. Madoff

They Rule: The 1% v Democracy: Paul Street

With Liberty and Justice for Some, how the law is used to destroy equality and protect the powerful: Glenn Greenwald

Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making: David Rothkopf

Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class: Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson.

Capital as Power. A Study of Order and Creorder: Nitzan, Jonathan and Bichler, Shimshon. (2009) pdf

Billionaires: Darrell West

The Fine Print: David Cay Johnston

Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else: David Cay Johnston

The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer Dean Baker (download it for free.)

Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: Greg Palast

Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America: Martin Gilens

Pity The Billionaire: Thomas Frank

Greedy Bastards: Dylan Ratigan

Wealth and Democracy: A Political Histoory of the American Rich by Kevin Philips

13 Bankers: Simon Johnson and James Kwak

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush: Kevin Phillips

The Coors Connection: Russ Bellant

What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World: Melisa Rossi

The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills (Oxford University Press, 2000 edition)

Who Rules America? Power and Politics by G. William Domhoff

The power elite by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright), 1916-1962

The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen