The Plutocrats Are Not Here Tonight

Here's the beautiful old Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, now mostly condos and mostly dark. Why?  The plutocrats who own these units have so many homes scattered around the posh world that they spend only a few nights each year here.  These are the super rich - the 1% of the 1%.  If you're interested in learning more about them, you might enjoy Chrystia Freeland's "The Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else," reviewed below by Martin Wolf.


"Chrystia Freeland has written a fascinating account of perhaps the most important economic and political development of our era: the rise of a new plutocracy. She explains that today’s wealthy are different from their predecessors: more skilled and more global; and more often employees than owners, notably so in finance and high technology. By putting together stories of individuals with reading of the scholarly evidence, she gives us a clear view of what many will view as a not so brave new world."
--Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator for the Financial Times