Notes

Prologue: “They Write the Rules for the Rest of the World”

1. philanthropic contributions fell: Sissi Cao, “Billionaires Made Record Profit, Donated Record Lows in 2020,” Observer, January 5, 2021, https://observer.com/2021/01/billionaires-philanthropy-record-low-2020-bezos-elon-musk.

2. The collective fortune: Tom Metcalf, “Dalio, Dimon and 117 Other Billionaires to Descend on Davos,” Bloomberg, January 17, 2020.

3. the wealthiest 1 percent: Matt Bruenig, “Top 1% Up $21 Trilion. Bottom 50% Down $900 Billion,” People’s Policy Project, June 14, 2019, https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/06/14/top-1-up-21-trillion-bottom-50-down-900-billion.

4. corporate executives have: Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe, “CEO Compensation Has Grown 940 Percent Since 1978,” Economic Policy Institute, August 14, 2019, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018.

5. ten richest people: Justinas Baltrusaitis, “World’s Top Ten Billionaires Worth More Than Poorest 85 Countries Combined,” LearnBonds, May 15, 2020, https://learnbonds.com/news/top-10-richest-people-worth-more-than-85-poorest-countries-gdp.

6. Had income in the United States: Carter C. Price and Kathryn A. Edwards, “Trends in Income from 1975 to 2018,” Rand Corporation, https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html.

Chapter 1: “High Up in the Mountains”

1. A half century earlier: Lawrence Mishel and Julia Wolfe, “CEO Compensation Has Grown 940% Since 1978,” Economic Policy Institute, August 14, 2019, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018.

2. University of California at Berkeley economists: Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2019), Chapter One.

3. In Britain, the average worker: William Wright and Christian Benson, “The Crisis of Capitalism—A Summary,” New Financial, November 2019, https://newfinancial.org/report-the-crisis-of-capitalism.

4. Goldin had coauthored a prescient book: Ian Goldin and Mike Mariathasan, The Butterfly Defect: How Globalization Creates Systemic Risks, and What to Do About It (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014).

5. the wealthiest person in Asia: Mukesh Ambani, Forbes profile, https://www.forbes.com/profile/mukesh-ambani/#26a95919214c.

6. The company’s promotional literature: Amanda DiSilvestro, “The 6 Greatest Benefits of CRM Platforms,” Salesforce.com website, https://www.salesforce.com/crm/benefits-of-crm.

7. Benioff has literally written the book: Marc Benioff and Karen Southwick, Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well (Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press, 2004).

8. “the reason we’re doing software”: Mark Leibovich, “The Outsider, His Business and His Billions,” Washington Post, October 30, 2000, p. A1.

9. “I’ve always believed that technology”: Marc Benioff and Monica Langley, Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change (New York: Random House, 2019), A New Direction.

10. “I have been very fortunate”: Interview on Charlie Rose, November 29, 2011.

11. in the company of his golden retriever: Benioff, Trailblazer, op. cit., Chapter Three.

12. He was rhapsodic about Dreamforce: Ibid., Chapter Four.

13. “It’s a four-day opportunity”: Ibid.

14. “During those endless Sundays”: Ibid., Chapter One.

15. He was also struck: Ibid., 38.

16. Less than four years later: Ibid., Prologue.

17. special relationship with the boss: Leibovich, op. cit.

18. “the hugging saint”: Benioff, Trailblazer, op. cit., Prologue.

19. “In your quest to succeed”: Ibid.

20. “Doing well by doing good”: Ibid.

21. When the state of Indiana: Jena McGregor, “This Tech CEO Is Taking a Real Stand Against Indiana’s ‘Religious Freedom’ Law; Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff Has Launched an All-Out Campaign Against the New Law,” Washington Post, March 27, 2015.

22. a stance that put him crosswise: Jillian D’Onfro, “The Controversial San Francisco Homeless Tax That Pitted Tech Billionaires Marc Benioff and Jack Dorsey Against Each Other Passes,” CNBC, November 7, 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/07/san-francisco-proposition-c-homeless-tax-passes.html.

23. The new taxes were likely: Maya Kosoff, “Billionaires Jack Dorsey and Marc Benioff Spar over How to Solve Homelessness,” Vanity Fair Hive, October 12, 2018, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/billionaires-jack-dorsey-and-marc-benioff-spar-over-how-to-solve-homelessness.

24. zero in federal taxes: Matthew Gardner, Lorena Roque, and Steve Wamhoff, “Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Year of the Trump Tax Law,” Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, December 16, 2019, https://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidance-in-the-first-year-of-the-trump-tax-law.

25. accounting hocus-pocus: Chris Colin, “The Gospel of Wealth According to Marc Benioff,” Wired, December 11, 2019, https://www.wired.com/story/gospel-of-wealth-according-to-marc-benioff.

26. the Treasury opened up a loophole: Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis, Trade Wars Are Class Wars: How Rising Inequality Distorts the Global Economy and Threatens International Peace (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2020), Chapter One.

27. Clinton’s Treasury bestowed this gift: Ibid.

28. So-called profit shifting: Kimberly A. Clausing, “Profit Shifting Before and After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” National Tax Journal 1233–1266 (2020), UCLA School of Law, Law-Econ Research Paper No. 20-10, June 3, 2020, 73(4), available at SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=3274827 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3274827.

29. Benioff’s individual compensation: Salesforce, 2019 proxy statement, p. 39, https://s23.q4cdn.com/574569502/files/doc_financials/2019/664082_Salesforce_Proxy_bookmarked.pdf.

30. Benioff credited Schwab: Benioff, Trailblazer, op. cit., Chapter Ten.

31. Einstein had given a presentation: Nick Paumgarten, “Magic Mountain,” The New Yorker, March 5, 2012.

32. “High up in the mountains”: Schwab and Vanham, op. cit., 11.

33. The first iteration: Paumgarten, op. cit.

34. “The anxiety of exclusion pervades”: Ibid.

35. “We do not welcome them”: Ibid.

36. The company elevated Klaus Schwab: Julia Flynn and Steve Stecklow, “Transparency Eludes Founder of Davos Forum,” Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2000.

37. Xi used his turn at the podium: Peter S. Goodman, “In Era of Trump, China’s President Champions Economic Globalization,” New York Times, January 18, 2017, p. A1.

38. “We cannot evade it”: Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth,” North American Review, June 1889.

Chapter 2: “The World That Our Fathers in World War II Wanted Us to Live In”

1. a sixth grader in Houston: Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2013), Prologue.

2. as a single twentysomething: Stone, op. cit., Chapter One.

3. “The peoples of the earth”: Address by the Honorable Henry Morgenthau Jr. at the closing plenary session of the Bretton Woods conference, July 22, 1944, accessed by Fraser at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/historical/eccles/036_17_0004.pdf.

4. Half of the world’s manufactured wares: Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), Chapter Five.

5. Tax rates exceeding 70 percent: Chrystia Freeland, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else (New York: Penguin Books, 2012), Chapter One.

6. The trade organization conceived: Klein and Pettis, op. cit., Chapter One.

7. By 2000, the volume of trade: Meredith Crowley, “An Introduction to the WTO and GATT,” Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Economic Perspectives, 27, 4th, no. 4 (November 2003): 43.

8. the advent of so-called container shipping: Klein and Pettis, op. cit., Chapter One.

9. Milton Friedman set the revolution in motion: Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970.

10. Students at business schools were marinated: For a useful summation of this history, see Sam Long, “The Financialization of the American Elite,” American Affairs 3, no. 3 (Fall 2019), https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/08/the-financialization-of-the-american-elite/.

11. Under the terms of its entry: A comprehensive examination of the negotiations that produced China’s accession deal can be found in Paul Blustein’s book, Schism: China, America and the Fracturing of the Global Trading System (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2019).

12. In one single year: Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax,” ProPublica, June 8, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax.

13. China’s share of world steel production: Zhiyao Lu, “State of Play in the Chinese Steel Industry,” China Economic Watch, Peterson Institute for International Economics, July 5, 2016.

14. the shock inflicted by Chinese imports: David H. Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon H. Hanson, “The China Shock: Learning from Labor Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 21906, January 2016, https://www.nber.org/papers/w21906.

15. top tenth of Chinese households: Thomas Piketty, Li Yang, and Gabriel Zucman, “Capital Accumulation, Private Property, and Rising Inequality in China, 1978–2015,” American Economic Review, 109, no. 7 (July 2019), https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20170973.

16. Trump’s trade war: Adam S. Posen, “The Price of Nostalgia,” Foreign Affairs, May–June 2021.

17. “The fetishization of manufacturing jobs”: Ibid.

18. the company paid out $31 million: United States Steel Corp., Form 10-K Filed with Securities and Exchange Commission for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2016, https://www.ussteel.com/sites/default/files/annual_reports/USS%20Form%2010-K%20-%202016.pdf.

19. a $1.5 million salary: Securities and Exchange Commission Schedule 14A, Proxy Statement for United States Steel Corp., March 14, 2017.

20. the economist Jeff Faux: Jeff Faux, “PNTR with China: Economic and Political Costs Greatly Outweigh Benefits,” Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper No. 94, April 1, 2000, https://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_pntr_china.

21. Clinton declared in 2000: Remarks by Bill Clinton to the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, March 8, 2000, as cited in James Mann, The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression (New York: Viking, 2007), 174.

22. A Chinese journalist: Peter S. Goodman, “Yahoo Says It Gave China Internet Data; Journalist Jailed Tracing E-mail,” Washington Post, September 11, 2005, p. A30.

23. JPMorgan Chase handed out internships: Ned Levin, Emily Glazer, and Christopher M. Matthews, “In J.P. Morgan Emails, a Tale of China and Connections: Firm’s Hiring of Son of Chinese Government Official Has Drawn Scrutiny from U.S. Authorities Investigating Hiring Practices of Several Big Banks,” Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2015.

24. A Chinese sovereign wealth fund: Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019), Chapter Twenty.

25. Chinese Communist Party leaders: Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, “The Moral Hazard of Dealing with China,” The Atlantic, January 11, 2020.

26. as a graduation speaker: Ibid.

27. In Denmark: OECD.Stat, Net Replacement Rates in Unemployment, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=NRR.

28. “I have always been academically smart”: Franklin Foer, “Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan,” The Atlantic, November 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/what-jeff-bezos-wants/598363.

29. At Miami Palmetto Senior High School: Luisa Yanez, “Jeff Bezos: A Rocket Launched from Miami’s Palmetto High School,” Miami Herald, August 6, 2013.

30. “Einstein was there”: Mark Leibovich, “Child Prodigy, Online Pioneer; Amazon.com Founder Bezos Hires Great Minds. But Will It Matter?” Washington Post, September 3, 2000, p. A1.

31. Bezos hatched the idea: Stone, op. cit., Chapter One.

32. 3 million books in print: Ibid.

33. Job interviews entailed: Leibovich, op. cit.

34. He emulated Walmart’s dominance: Stone, op. cit., Chapter Three.

35. loyalty card stamped: Ibid.

36. He had chosen the city: Stone, op. cit., Chapter Two.

37. pay for parking: Stone, op. cit., Prologue.

38. “The reason we are here”: Stone, op. cit., Chapter Three.

39. “We need to apply”: Stone, op. cit., Chapter Six.

40. “Are you lazy”: Ibid.

41. For an Amazon executive: Stone, op. cit., Chapter Eleven.

42. “If Marxist revolutionaries”: Foer, op. cit.

43. the seventeen executives: Ibid.

44. “The idea was always”: Peter de Jonge, “Riding the Perilous Waters of Amazon.com,” The New York Times Magazine, March 14, 1999.

45. Amazon actively recruited Chinese suppliers: Jon Emont, “Amazon’s Heavy Recruitment of Chinese Sellers Puts Consumers at Risk,” Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2019.

46. “Amazon isn’t happening”: Stone, op. cit., Prologue.

47. Amazon applied its muscle: Brad Plumer, “Here’s What Amazon Lobbies for in D.C.,” Washington Post, August 7, 2013.

48. Amazon was employing twenty-eight lobbyists: Alec MacGillis, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2021), 86–87.

49. It had leveraged its status: Renee Dudley, “Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First,” ProPublica, June 6, 2020.

50. Even as Amazon raised pay: Conor Sen, “Still Worried About Inflation? Keep an Eye on Amazon,” Bloomberg, April 30, 2021.

51. Less than a third of his support: Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu, “The White Working Class and the 2016 Election,” Cambridge University Press, May 21, 2020.

52. The counties that had absorbed: Andrea Cerrato, Francesco Ruggieri, and Federico Maria Ferrara, “Trump Won in Counties That Lost Jobs to China and Mexico,” Washington Post, December 2, 2016.

Chapter 3: “Suddenly, the Orders Stopped”

1. “Agnelli is Fiat”: Arbër Sulejmani, “Gianni Agnelli—Juventus’ Uncrowned King of Italy,” Juvefc.com, January 24, 2017.

2. “He wore his tie askew”: “The Best Dressed Men in the History of the World,” Esquire, August 20, 2007.

3. The impressive haul: Ettore Boffano and Paolo Griseri, “Il tesoro nascosto dell’Avvocato,” La Repubblica, June 11, 2009.

4. The papers exposed: Paolo Biondani, Gloria Riva, and Leo Sisti, “Barilla, Corallo e Margherita Agnelli: I tesori dei vip d’Italia sono all’estero,” L’Espresso, June 29, 2018.

5. the strict rules of the currency: Servaas Storm, “How to Ruin a Country in Three Decades,” Institute for New Economic Thinking, April 10, 2019, https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/how-to-ruin-a-country-in-three-decades.

6. HSBC’s banking operations: Paolo Biondani, “Quello scudo fiscale in regalo agli evasori,” L’Espresso, February 12, 2015, https://espresso.repubblica.it/attualita/2015/02/12/news/quello-scudo-fiscale-in-regalo-agli-evasori-1.199228.

7. evasion of European value-added taxes: “Italians Are Europe’s Worst Tax Cheats (Again . . .),” Local, September 7, 2016, https://www.thelocal.it/20160907/italians-europe-vat-tax-evasion-dodge-again.

8. Marchionne demanded an immediate infusion: Marco Capobianchi, American Dream: Cosi Marchionne ha salvato la Chrysler e ucciso la Fiat (Rome: Chiarelettere, 2014).

9. money to expand abroad: Ibid.

10. establishing itself in the United Kingdom: “Fiat Says Ciao to Italy as Chrysler Merger Is Approved,” Automotive News, August 1, 2014, https://www.autonews.com/article/20140801/COPY01/308019978/fiat-says-ciao-to-italy-headquarters-as- chrysler-merger-is-approved.

11. the highest-paid CEO in Italy: Gianni Dragoni, “Industriali battono banchieri: ecco i 50 manager più pagati in Italia nel 2017,” Il Sole 24 Ore, November 25, 2018, https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/industriali-battono-banchieri-ecco-50-manager-piu-pagati-italia-2017-AEy YvKmG.

12. 77 percent of Italians: Richard Wike, Laura Silver, and Alexandra Castillo, “Many Across the Globe Are Dissatisfied with How Democracy Is Working,” Pew Research Center, April 29, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/04/29/many-across-the-globe-are-dissatisfied-with-how-democracy-is-working.

13. A textile workforce: Data from Prato office of Confindustra, Italy’s largest industrial trade association.

14. he employed a team of trendspotters: Sarah Forbes Orwig, entry on Amancio Ortega, Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amancio-Ortega.

15. Zara sold its wares: Suzy Hansen, “How Zara Grew into the World’s Largest Fashion Retailer,” The New York Times Magazine, November 9, 2012.

16. a fortune estimated at $55 billion: “Forbes World’s Billionaire List: The Richest in 2020,” https://www.forbes.com/billionaires.

17. supplying Persson with wealth: Ibid., “#84 Stefan Persson,” https://www.forbes.com/profile/stefan-persson/#2242fb925dbe.

18. nighttime raids on the plants: Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (London: Bloomsbury, 2011), Chapter One.

19. “an Islamic caliphate”: Shaun Walker, “Matteo Salvini; Vote for Nationalists to Stop European Caliphate,” Guardian, May 2, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/02/matteo-salvini-vote-for-nationalist-parties-stop-islamic-caliphate.

20. “ethnic cleansing”: Eric Sylvers, “Italy Far-Right Leader Gets Boost,” Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2018.

Chapter 4: “Our Chance to Fuck Them Back”

1. “I sat him down”: Jenny Johnston, “George Osborne: Why I’m Ready to Be Mr Nasty,” MailOnline, October 3, 2009.

2. people on trading floors in London: Peter S. Goodman, “‘Brexit’ Imperils London’s Claim as Banker to the Planet,” New York Times, May 12, 2017, p. A1.

3. “He looks permanently pink”: Andy Beckett, “The Real George Osborne,” Guardian, November 28, 2011.

4. “I want to be rich”: Patricia Crisafulli, The House of Dimon: How JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), Chapter Three.

5. His grandfather had arrived: Duff McDonald, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), Chapter One.

6. the family name: Crisafulli, op. cit., Chapter Three.

7. Dimon spent most of his youth: McDonald, op. cit., Chapter One.

8. His family home: Keith Flamer, “The Secret History of Park Avenue’s ‘Gothic’ Grande Dame (And Its $16 Million Penthouse Project),” Forbes, October 22, 2015, https://www.forbes.com/sites/keithflamer/2015/10/22/the-secret-history-of-park-avenues-gothic-grande-dame-and-its-16-million-penthouse-project/?sh=4863977fc93d.

9. He and his two brothers: Aaron Glantz, Homewreckers: How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and Demolished the American Dream (New York: William Morrow, 2019), Chapter Eighteen.

10. Their homes in Greenwich: Crisafulli, op. cit., Chapter Three.

11. Weill had grown up: McDonald, op. cit., Chapter Two.

12. Weill offered him a summer job: Crisafulli, op. cit., Chapter Three.

13. Weill denied Dimon a place: Ibid.

14. He persuaded JPMorgan Chase: Duff McDonald, “The Heist,” New York, March 21, 2008.

15. “Don’t do anything stupid”: McDonald, Last Man Standing, op. cit., Chapter Four.

16. “We do not yet know”: Roger Lowenstein, The End of Wall Street (New York: Penguin Books, 2010), Chapter Seven.

17. the largest Ponzi scheme: Erik Larson and Christopher Cannon, “Madoff’s Victims Are Close to Getting Their $19 Billion Back,” Bloomberg, December 8, 2018.

18. “too good to be true”: Jesse Eisinger, The Chickenshit Club: Why the Justice Department Fails to Prosecute Executives (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), 234.

19. The bank shielded management: Ibid., 234–36.

20. Paulson soon rushed to Capitol Hill: Adam Tooze, Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (New York: Penguin Books, 2018), Chapter Seven.

21. “Counter to what most people think”: Hugh Son, “Dimon Says JP Morgan’s Actions During ’08 Crisis Were Done to ‘Support Our Country,’” CNBC, September 14, 2018.

22. the five largest banks: Robert B. Reich, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It (New York: Knopf, 2020), Chapter Three.

23. spa treatments: Brian Ross and Tom Shine, “After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort,” ABC News, October 7, 2008.

24. “Be careful how you make those statements”: Eamon Javers, “Inside Obama’s Bank CEOs Meeting,” Politico, April 3, 2009, https://www.politico.com/story/2009/04/inside-obamas-bank-ceos-meeting-020871.

25. His Justice Department failed: Eisinger, Chickenshit Club, op. cit.

26. to buy back their stock: Edward Yardeni, Joe Abbott, and Mali Quintana, “Corporate Finance Briefing: S&P 500 Buybacks & Dividends,” Yardeni Research, Inc., August 21, 2020; as cited in William Lazonick and Matt Hopkins, “How ‘Maximizing Shareholder Value’ Minimized the Strategic National Stockpile: The $5.3 Trillion Question for Pandemic Preparedness Raised by the Ventilator Fiasco,” Institute for New Economic Thinking, July 2020, https://www.ineteconomics.org/research/research-papers/how-maximizing-shareholder-value-minimized-the-strategic-national-stockpile-the-5-3-trillion-question-for-pandemic-preparedness-raised-by-the-ventilator-fiasco.

27. Over the course of those ten years: Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo, and Sophia Paslaski, “Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes, and Pandemic Profiteers,” Institute for Policy Studies, April 23, 2020, https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Billionaire-Bonanza-2020.pdf.

28. Dimon’s compensation: “JP Morgan Doubles CEO Jamie Dimon’s Salary Despite Billions in Fines,” Associated Press, published in the Guardian, January 24, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/24/jp-morgan-jamie-dimons-salary-billions-fines.

29. “I think a lot of it was unfair”: “JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says Government Cases Were ‘Unfair,’” Reuters, January 23, 2014, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-dimon/jpmorgan-ceo-dimon-says-government-cases-were-u nfair-idUSBREA0M0PL20140123.

30. Dimon called the rules “anti-American”: Tom Braithwaite, “Dimon in Attack on Canada’s Bank Chief,” Financial Times, September 26, 2011.

31. losses that exceeded $6 billion: Renae Merle, “The ‘London Whale’ Trader Lost $6.2 Billion, but He May Walk Off Scot-Free,” Washington Post, April 13, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-london-whale-trader-lost-62-billion-but-he-may-walk-off-scot-free/2017/04/12/14b3836a-1fb0-11e7-be2a-3a1fb24d4671_story.html.

32. “preference as a business”: “Nissan Statement: UK Should Remain in EU,” press release on Nissan website, February 24, 2016, http://nissaninsider.co.uk/nissan-it-makes-sense-for-uk-to-remain-in-eu.

33. only to “professional investors”: European Commission, Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers: Frequently Asked Questions, Memo 10/572, November 11, 2010, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/MEMO_10_572.

34. One hundred executives: William Schomberg and Guy Faulconbridge, “Hedge Fund Managers Crispin Odey and Paul Marshall Say Brexit Would Help London,” Reuters, April 29, 2016.

35. hedge fund manager Crispin Odey: “Rich List 2020,” Sunday Times (London), https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list#TableFullRichList.

36. “Cluckingham Palace”: Harriet Dennys, “City Diary: Crispin Odey’s Chickens Come Home to (a Luxury) Roost,” Telegraph, September 25, 2012, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/citydiary/9563587/City-Diary-Crispin-Odeys-chickens-come-home-to-a-luxury-roost.html.

37. contributed nearly £900,000: Caroline Mortimer, “Brexit Campaign Was Largely Funded by Five of UK’s Richest Businessmen,” Independent, April 24, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-leave-eu-campaign-arron-banks-jeremy-hosking-five-uk-richest-businessmen-peter-hargreaves-a7699046.html.

38. hedge fund manager Paul Marshall: “Rich List 2020,” Sunday Times (London); ibid.

Chapter 5: “It Had to Explode”

1. “For our society to get better”: Michel Rose and Sybille de La Hamaide, “Macron Urges the French to Value Success, Rejects ‘President of the Rich’ Tag,” Reuters, October 15, 2017, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics/macron-urges-the-french-to-value-success-rejects-president-of-rich-tag-idUKKBN1CK0TG.

2. “We believe that this presidency”: Sophie Fay, “Larry Fink: ‘I See a Strong Europe in the Years to Come,” L’Obs, June 28, 2017, https://www.nouvelobs.com/economie/20170628.OBS1352/larry-fink-je-vois-une-europe-forte-dans-les-an nees-qui-viennent.html.

3. “It’s nice to be wanted”: William Horobin, “In Shift, France to Speed Tax Cuts,” Wall Street Journal (Europe Edition), July 13, 2017, p. A4.

4. Nearly half of his campaign funds: Sylvain Tronchet, Julie Guesdon, and Cellule investigation de Radio France, “Half of Emmanuel Macron’s Campaign Funded by Major Donors,” Radio France, May 3, 2019, https://www.franceculture.fr/politique/comment-800-grands-donateurs-ont-finance-la-moitie-de-la-campagne-demmanuel-macron.

5. one of the three wealthiest people: Forbes list of billionaires, accessed August 5, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/#505b73e066fa.

6. Arnault’s yacht: Laura Craik, “The Fabulous World of Bernard Arnault,” Times (London), January 27, 2013.

7. “Emmanuel Macron’s program”: Bernard Arnault, “Pourquoi je vote Emmanuel Macron,” Les Echos, May 5, 2017, https://www.lesechos.fr/2017/05/pourquoi-je-vote-emmanuel-macron-1115472.

8. Arnault’s accountants had made: Monique Pinçon Charlot and Michel Pinçon, Le Président des ultra-riches (Paris: Zones, 2019), Chapter Two.

9. “What you call tax fraud”: Interview with Mediapart and BFM-TV, April 15, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt0as7x-kfs.

10. He took several trips to London: Antton Rouget, Mathilde Matthieu, Mathieu Magnaudeix, and Martine Orange, “Macron Leaks: The Secrets of an Extraordinary Fundraising Operation,” Mediapart, May 21, 2017, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/210517/macron-leaks-les-secrets-dune-levee-de-fonds-hors-norme?onglet=full.

11. “If we want to avoid this fragmentation”: Peter S. Goodman, “Europe Is Back. And Rejecting Trumpism,” New York Times, January 24, 2018, p. B3.

12. “If I cannot explain to people”: Ibid.

13. less than 10 percent of the French workforce: OECD.Stat, trade union density data, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TUD.

14. contracts lasting less than a month: Analysis of government data provided by Philippe Askenazy, a labor economist at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris.

15. One in five young people: OECD.Stat, youth unemployment rate data, https://data.oecd.org/unemp/youth-unemployment-rate.htm.

16. he divided the unions: James McAuley, “Macron Could Succeed Where Other French Presidents Failed on Labor Reform,” Washington Post, September 2, 2017, p. A8.

17. like Nordic-style free enterprise: Peter S. Goodman, “Nordic-Style Designs Sit at Heart of French Labor Plan,” New York Times, October 26, 2017, p. B1, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/business/france-labor-reform-economy-macron.html.

18. lowering it by 70 percent: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, “Macron Slashes France’s Wealth Tax in Pro-business Budget,” Financial Times, October 24, 2017.

19. Economic inequality was nowhere near: The World Bank, World Development Indicators: Distribution of Income or Consumption, http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/1.3.

20. Only Denmark, Sweden, and Belgium: Orsetta Causa and Mikkel Hermansen, “Income Redistribution Through Taxes and Transfers Across OECD Countries,” OECD Economics Department Working Papers No. 1453, July 22, 2019, p. 11.

21. Between 1983 and 2015: Bertrand Garbinti, Jonathan Goupille-Lebret, and Thomas Piketty, “Income Inequality in France, 1900–2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts (DINA),” Wealth & Income Database, Working Paper Series No. 2017/4, April 2017, revised January 2018, https://wid.world/document/b-garbinti-j-goupille-and-t-piketty-inequality-dynamics-in-france-1900-2014-evidence-from-distributional-national-accounts-2016.

22. dramatic reduction in inequality: Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, World Inequality Report, 2018, p. 95.

23. explosive strikes: Eleanor Beardsley, “In France, The Protests of May 1968 Reverbate Today—and Still Divide the French,” National Public Radio, May 29, 2018, https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/05/29/613671633/in-france-the-protests-of-may-1968-reverberate-today-and-still-divide-the-french.

24. barely 20 percent of national spending: O. Causa and M. Hermansen, “Income Redistribution through Taxes and Transfers Across OECD Countries,” OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1453, OECD Publishing, Paris, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1787/bc7569c6-en.

25. Macron pledged to slash the tax rate: Simon Jessop and Inti Landauro, “France Lures Private Equity with Post-Brexit Tax Break,” Reuters, November 2, 2018.

26. nursing feelings of betrayal: Jacques Monin, Radio France Investigation Unit, February 21, 2019, https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/gilets-jaunes/l-histoire-secrete-de-la-reforme-de-l-isf-elle-a-ete-precipitee-sous-la-pression-deconomistes-et-de-grands-patrons_3199431.html.

27. secretly met the president: Ibid.

28. Lifting the wealth tax: Henry Samuel, “Paris Overtakes London in the Super-Rich League as the ‘Macron Effect’ Lures the Wealthy to City of Light,” Telegraph, September 6, 2018.

29. the one hundred wealthiest people: Report from MM. Vincent Eble and Alberic de Montgolfier, on behalf of Senate Finance Committee, October 9, 2019, https://www.senat.fr/notice-rapport/2019/r19-042-1-notice.html.

30. The year before its abolition: Askenazy, op. cit.

31. Among the beneficiaries: Mathilde Mathieu, “Macron Caught by His ISF,” Mediapart, May 31, 2016, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/310516/macron-rattrape-par-son-isf?onglet=full.

32. bill for makeup services: James McAuley, “French President Macron Has Spent $30,000 on Makeup Services in Just 3 Months,” Washington Post, August 25, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/25/french-president-macron-has-spent-30000-on-makeup-services-in-just-3-months.

33. For his fortieth birthday: Adam Sage, “Emmanuel Macron Living Like a King, Critics Taunt After ‘Lavish’ Birthday Party,” Times (London), December 18, 2017.

34. new set of 900 dinner plates: Adam Nossiter, “Let Them Eat on Fancy Plates: Emmanuel Macron’s New China,” New York Times, June 15, 2018, p. A5.

35. new swimming pool: Kim Willisher, “From Plates to Piscine: Now Macrons Want a Presidential Pool,” Guardian, June 21, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/21/from-plates-to-piscine-now-macrons-want-a-presidential-pool.

36. “truckload of cash on social programs”: Vincent Michelon, “Video: Emmanuel Macron: ‘On met un pognon de dingue dans les minima sociaux,” LCI, June 13, 2018, https://www.lci.fr/politique/emmanuel-macron-on-met-un-pognon-de-dingue-dans-les-minima-sociaux-video-2090364.html.

37. “stop messing around”: Alissa J. Rubin, “That’s ‘Mr. President’ to You: Macron Scolds French Student,” New York Times, June 20, 2018, p. A5, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/world/europe/france-president-macron.html.

38. rubber bullets and tear gas: Alissa J. Rubin, “Macron Inspects Damage After ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests as France Weighs State of Emergency,” New York Times, December 2, 2018, p. A10, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/world/europe/france-yellow-vests-protests-macron.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Article&region=Footer.

39. reversed course: Adam Nossiter, “France Suspends Fuel Tax Increase That Spurred Violent Protests,” New York Times, December 5, 2018, p. A6.

40. “One can always do better”: Adam Nossiter, “Macron, Chastened by Yellow Vest Protests, Says ‘I Can Do Better,’” New York Times, April 26, 2019, p. A11.

41. “between nationalists and globalists”: Geert De Clercq, “France’s Le Pen Launches EU Campaign with Appeal to ‘Yellow Vests,’” Reuters, January 13, 2019, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics-farright/frances-le-pen-launches-eu-campaign-with-appeal-to-yellow-vests-idUKKCN1P70RK.

42. typical French worker was retiring at sixty: “France Economy: Risking the Rage of the Aged,” Economist Intelligence Unit, September 14, 2019.

43. “the Wizard of Oz”: Suzanna Andrews, “Larry Fink’s $12 Trillion Shadow,” Vanity Fair, March 2, 2010.

44. BlackRock had worked: Katrina Brooker, “Can This Man Save Wall Street?” Fortune, October 29, 2008.

45. He told Paulson and Geithner: Henry M. Paulson, Jr., On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System (New York: Hachette, 2013), Chapter Five.

46. the solidity of Lehman Brothers: Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves (New York: Penguin Books, 2009), Chapter Seven.

47. a gaping conflict of interest: Liz Rappaport and Susanne Craig, “BlackRock Wears Multiple Hats,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 2009, https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124269131342732625.

48. “Our clients trust us”: Ibid.

49. regular at San Pietros: Sorkin, op. cit.

50. Macron hosted Fink: Luc Peillon and Jacques Pezet, “Est-il vrai que Macron a rencontré le groupe BlackRock, spécialisé dans les fonds de pension?” Liberation, September 12, 2019, https://www.msn.com/fr-fr/actualite/france/est-il-vrai-que-macron-a-rencontr%C3%A9-le-groupe-blackrock-sp%C3%A9cialis%C3%A9-dans-les-fonds-de-pension/ar-BBXZWcc?ocid=sf&fbclid=IwAR0MPKkgRDwGIYdP_jLlvuvRtmenK3vm0yRzpSuA5mQyeu7NoZKq9SdKw.

51. His schedule included a dinner with Fink: Sophie Fay, “Larry Fink, the $5.4 Trillion Man,” L’Obs, June 28, 2017.

52. BlackRock helped organize a summit: Odile Benyahia-Kouider, “Comment L’Elysée a déroulé le tapis rouge au roi de Wall Street,” Le Canard Enchaîné, October 26, 2017.

53. he collected more than £600,000: Jill Treanor and Rowena Mason, “Buy, George? World’s Largest Fund Manager Hires Osborne as Adviser,” Guardian, January 20, 2017.

54. moving perhaps one thousand jobs: Stephen Morris and Richard Partington, “Brexit: HSBC May Move 20% of Its London Banking Operations to Paris, Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver Says,” Independent, January 18, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-latest-news-hsbc-bank-move-20-cent-fifth-london-banking-operations-paris-chief-executive-stuart-gulliver-a7532711.html.

55. “At the center of our mission”: Chad Bray, “Former Top British Official to Join BlackRock as an Adviser,” New York Times, January 20, 2017.

56. 5 percent of French savings: Liz Alderman, “A Wall Street Giant Is Fueling Anticapitalist Fervor in France,” New York Times, February 15, 2020, p. A1.

57. protestors stormed BlackRock’s office: Ibid.

58. “We deplore the fact”: Ibid.

Chapter 6: “Every Stone I Looked Under Was a Blackstone”

1. “The financialization of housing”: Letter to Schwarzman from Surya Deva, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the issue of human rights, and Leilani Farha, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, United Nations, March 22, 2019, https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/Issues/Housing/Financialization/OL_OTH_17_2019.pdf&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1.

2. Swedish women to work: Marten Blix, Digitalization, Immigration and the Welfare State (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017), 19.

3. “Frugality drives innovation”: Brian Smale, “Bezos on Innovation,” Bloomberg Businessweek, April 17, 2008.

4. miners put stock in the Nordic Model: Peter S. Goodman, “The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine,” New York Times, December 28, 2017, p. A1, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/business/the-robots-are-coming-and-sweden-is-fine.html.

5. flying economy class: Robert D. McFadden, “Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA Founder Who Built a Global Empire Through Thrift, Dies at 91,” New York Times, January 29, 2018, p. A1.

6. secondhand clothes: Giulia Crouch, “Father of Flat-Pack ‘Stingy’ IKEA Founder Ingvar Kamprad, Worth £54billion, Was as Cheap as His Furniture, Bought Clothes in Flea Markets and Drove a 20-Year-Old Volvo,” Scottish Sun, January 28, 2018, p. 20.

7. showing up unannounced: McFadden, op. cit.

8. participation in a fascist group: Ibid.

9. “His philosophy throughout the years”: Johan Stenebo, The Truth About IKEA: The Secret Behind the World’s Fifth Richest Man and the Success of the Flatpack Giant (United Kingdom: Gibson Square, 2010), Chapter Nine.

10. “symbolic sums”: Ibid.

11. Kamprad returned home: Jens Hansegard, “IKEA Founder to Return Home,” Wall Street Journal Europe, June 28, 2013, p. 20.

12. reduction in government revenue: Blix, op. cit., 25.

13. slashing public spending: Claes Belfrage and Markus Kallifatides, “Financialisation and the New Swedish Model,” Cambridge Journal of Economics 2018, 882.

14. average rate of unemployment: Gregg M. Olsen, “Half Empty or Half Full? The Swedish Welfare State in Transition,” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, May 1, 1999.

15. inflation spread: Andreas Bergh, “The Swedish Economy,” Milken Institute Review, January 1, 2017.

16. Sweden’s central bank lifted interest rates: Blix, op. cit., 24.

17. unemployment rate was above 8 percent: Olsen, op. cit.

18. the government slashed public sector jobs: Ibid.

19. Sweden reduced job training: Ibid.

20. they would pay for themselves: Blix, op. cit., 26.

21. 8,700-acre country estate: Dan Alexander, “Meet the 10 Billionaire Tycoons Who Rule Their Countries’ Economies,” Forbes, March 14, 2014.

22. an entire English village: Tristan Cork, “Swedish Clothes Tycoon Adds Historic Estate to Portfolio,” Western Daily Press, March 19, 2013, p. 8.

23. 8,500-acre manor: Murray Wardrop, “Swedish H&M Boss Stefan Persson ‘to Buy Entire Hampshire Village,’” Telegraph, May 24, 2009.

24. Incomes in Sweden were widening: Jon Pareliussen, Christophe Andre, Hugo Bourrousse, and Vincent Koen, “Income, Wealth and Equal Opportunities in Sweden,” OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 1394, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/income-wealth-and-equal-opportunities-in-sweden_e900be20-en.

25. poverty doubled: Ibid., 11.

26. one in four young adults: Anneli Lucia Tostar, “Young Adults and the Stockholm Housing Crisis: Falling Through the Cracks in the Foundation of the Welfare State,” Master’s Thesis, Royal Institute of Technology, 7.

27. “I grew up in the middle-class suburbs”: Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019), Prologue (Made, Not Born).

28. “I’m a very happy man”: Ibid., Chapter One.

29. “that will make a great difference”: Ibid., Chapter Two.

30. started at the lowest rungs: David Carey and John E. Morris, King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone (New York: Crown Publishing, 2010), Chapter Seven.

31. her family’s Park Avenue apartment: Schwarzman, op. cit., Chapter Two.

32. cultivated a bond: Ibid.

33. poster child, Michael Milken: Laurie P. Cohen, “About Face: How Michael Milken Was Forced to Accept the Prospect of Guilt,” Wall Street Journal, April 23, 1990, p. A1.

34. he paid $37 million: James B. Stewart, “The Birthday Party,” The New Yorker, February 4, 2008.

35. neighbors in the building: Aaron Glantz, Homewreckers, op. cit., Chapter Five.

36. “I love houses”: Stewart, op. cit.

37. $78 billion in assets: Ibid.

38. shield $3.7 billion in income: David Cay Johnston, “Blackstone Devises Way to Avoid Taxes on $3.7 Billion,” New York Times, July 13, 2007.

39. spending $3,000 on groceries: Henny Sender and Monica Langley, “Buyout Mogul: How Blackstone’s Chief Became $7 Billion Man—Schwarzman Says He’s Worth Every Penny; $400 for Stone Crabs,” Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2007, p. A1.

40. full-length portrait of the birthday boy: Stewart, op. cit.

41. guests included: Michael Flaherty, “Blackstone CEO Gala Sign of Buyout Boom,” Reuters, February 14, 2007.

42. “a celebration with six hundred people”: Schwarzman, op. cit., Chapter Nineteen.

43. dressed up as Marie Antoinette: Glantz, op. cit., Chapter Eleven.

44. “We are the rich”: Ibid.

45. “I don’t feel like a wealthy person”: Stewart, op. cit.

46. “the Blackstone bill”: Alec MacGillis, “The Billionaire’s Loophole,” The New Yorker, March 7, 2016.

47. Another bill in the House: Stewart, op. cit.

48. nearly $5 million on lobbying: MacGillis, “The Billionaire’s Loophole,” op. cit.

49. Schumer deployed a novel means: Ibid.

50. auctions held on courthouse steps: Glantz, op. cit., Chapter Twelve.

51. “Once we fixed up the houses”: Schwarzman, op. cit., Chapter 22.

52. Invitation invited them to pay: Michelle Conlin, “Uneasy Living: Spiders, Sewage and a Flurry of Fees—The Other Side of Renting a House from Wall Street,” Reuters, July 27, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-housing-invitation.

53. celebrated the bond issue: Glantz, op. cit., Chapter Seventeen.

54. more than doubling its initial stake: Patrick Clark, “Blackstone Exits Single-Family Rental Bet Slammed by Warren,” Bloomberg, November 21, 2019.

55. a leading Swedish investment bank: “Enskilda Securities and the Blackstone Group to Cooperate on North American/Scandinavian M&A,” Business Wire, October 11, 1995.

56. Jacob Wallenberg: Richard Milne, “Meet the Wallenbergs,” Financial Times, June 5, 2015.

57. Blackstone plunked down $287 million: “Blackstone Obtains All Approvals for Purchase of 32% Interest in Sweden’s D Carnegie & Co,” SeeNews Nordic, August 25, 2016.

58. upped its stake: Stephanie Linhardt, “The Direct Approach,” The Banker, May 1, 2018.

59. Blackstone sold its stake: “Real Estate Firm Vonovia Buys Majority Stake in Sweden’s Hembla for $1.26 Billion,” Reuters, September 23, 2019.

60. “unwavering focus on its tenants”: Anthon Näsström, “Blackstone Sells Its 61 Percent Stake in Hembla to Vonovia,” Nordic Property News, September 23, 2019.

Chapter 7: “They Are Now Licking Their Lips”

1. Three-fourths of the benefits: “Corporate Tax Cut Benefits Wealthiest, Loses Needed Revenue, and Encourages Tax Avoidance,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/corporate-tax-cut-benefits-wealthiest-loses-needed-revenue-and-encourages-tax.

2. Americans earning between: Reconciliation Recommendations of the Senate Committee on Finance, Congressional Budget Office, November 26, 2017, https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/costestimate/reconciliationrecommendationssfc.pdf.

3. “When you put all these pieces together”: Peter S. Goodman and Patricia Cohen, “It Started as a Tax Cut. Now It Could Change American Life,” New York Times, November 30, 2017, p. A1.

4. as steel prices climbed: Don Lee, “Trump’s Steel Tariffs Were Supposed to Save the Industry. They Made Things Worse,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-29/steel-industry-faces-a-bleaker-future-than-when-trump-moved-to-rescue-it.

5. his access to Trump and President Xi: Michael Kranish, “Trump’s China Whisperer: How Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman Has Sought to Keep the President Close to Beijing,” Washington Post, March 13, 2018.

6. Fink also served as a go-between: Lingling Wei, Bob Davis, and Dawn Lim, “China Has One Powerful Friend Left in the U.S.: Wall Street,” Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2020.

7. “There may be retaliation”: Victor Reklaitis, “Jamie Dimon Says Trump’s Tariff Plan Is ‘the Wrong Way’ to Tackle Trade Problems,” MarketWatch, March 8, 2018.

8. a $250,000 gift to his inauguration: Michela Tindera, “The Majority of Donald Trump’s Billionaire Donors Didn’t Give to His 2016 Campaign,” Forbes, May 15, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2020/05/15/the-majority-of-donald-trumps-billionaire-donors-didnt-give-to-his-2016-campaign/#33c57b404340.

9. This was what $9 million could buy: Laura M. Holson, “Camels, Acrobats and Team Trump at a Billionaire’s Gala,” New York Times, February 14, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/fashion/stephen-schwarzman-billionaires-birthday-draws-team-trum p.html.

10. “That was then”: Robert Schmidt and Ben Brody, “Dimon’s Challenge: Making Staid CEO Club a Lobbying Power,” Bloomberg, March 14, 2017.

11. “America’s outdated tax system”: Business Roundtable television advertisement, “Slowest Recovery,” August 4, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwjiuZihT4U.

12. “Not only will this tax plan pay for itself”: Kate Davidson, “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: GOP Tax Plan Would More Than Offset Its Cost,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2017.

13. University of Chicago surveyed: IGM Economic Experts Panel, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, November 21, 2017, http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/tax-reform-2.

14. Two years after the tax cuts: Peter Cary, “Republicans Passed Tax Cuts—Then Profited,” Center for Public Integrity, January 24, 2020, https://publicintegrity.org/inequality-poverty-opportunity/taxes/trumps-tax-cuts/republicans-profit-congress.

15. companies used their windfall: Matt Egan, “Corporate America Gives Out a Record $1 Trillion in Stock Buybacks,” CNN Business, December 17, 2018, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/17/investing/stock-buybacks-trillion-dollars/index.html.

16. a record $1.3 trillion in dividends: Cary, op. cit.

17. more than triple the total earnings: Sarah Anderson, “How Wall Street Drives Gender and Race Pay Gaps,” Inequality.org, March 26, 2019, https://inequality.org/great-divide/wall-street-bonus-pool-2019.

18. “The economy is ripping”: Jordan Novet, “Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: The Economy Is ‘Ripping,’” CNBC, September 25, 2018.

19. “The survival of our entire civilization”: Peter Baker and Peter S. Goodman, “Trump and Davos: Not Exactly Best Friends, but Not Enemies Either,” New York Times, January 25, 2018, p. A1.

Chapter 8: “They Are Not Interested in Our Concerns”

1. Americans spent $3.8 trillion: Rabah Kamal, Daniel McDermott, Giorlando Ramirez, and Cynthia Cox, “How Has U.S. Spending on Healthcare Changed over Time?” Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spending-healthcare-changed-time/#item-start.

2. emergency rooms were uniquely attractive: Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, “Private Equity and Surprise Medical Billing,” Institute for New Economic Thinking, September 4, 2019, https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/private-equity-and-surprise-medical-billing#_edn12.

3. “an immense opportunity”: Schwarzman, op. cit., Chapter 10.

4. more than $833 billion: Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, “Private Equity Buyouts in Healthcare: Who Wins, Who Loses?” Institute for New Economic Thinking, March 25, 2020, https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/private-equity-buyouts-in-healthcare-who-wins-who-loses.

5. “the same value-extraction strategy”: Eileen Appelbaum, “How Private Equity Makes You Sicker,” The American Prospect, October 7, 2019.

6. roughly one of every three: Appelbaum and Batt, op. cit.

7. This resulted in charges: Zack Cooper, Fiona Scott Morton, and Nathan Shekita, “Surprise! Out-of-Network Billing for Emergency Care in the United States,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 23623, July 2017, p. 4, https://www.nber.org/papers/w23623.

8. hassled by collection agents: Wendi C. Thomas, Maya Miller, Beena Raghavendran, and Doris Burke, “This Doctors Group Is Owned by a Private Equity Firm and Repeatedly Sued the Poor Until We Called Them,” ProPublica, November 27, 2019, https://www.propublica.org/article/this-doctors-group-is-owned-by-a-private-equity-firm-and-repeatedly-su ed-the-poor-until-we-called-them.

9. “These higher payment rates”: Cooper, Morton, and Shekita, op. cit. 3.

10. billed at out-of-network rates: Ibid., 54.

11. one-third increase: Ibid., 23.

12. more than $28 million: Margot Sanger-Katz, Julie Creswell, and Reed Abelson, “Mystery Solved: Private-Equity-Backed Firm Are Behind Ad Blitz on ‘Surprise Billing,’” New York Times, September 14, 2019, p. B3.

13. 170 hospitals shuttered: Andrew W. Maxwell, H. Ann Howard, and George H. Pink, “Geographic Variation in the 2018 Profitability of Urban and Rural Hospitals,” NC Rural Health Research Program, April 2020.

14. a range of services: Kathleen Knocke, George H. Pink, Kristie W. Thompson, Randy K. Randolph, and Mark Holmes, “Changes in Provision of Selected Services by Rural and Urban Hospitals Between 2009 and 2017,” NC Rural Health Research Program, April 2021.

15. 924,000 hospital beds: American Hospital Association data.

16. twenty-five metropolitan areas: Reed Abelson, “When Hospitals Merge to Save Money, Patients Often Pay More,” New York Times, November 14, 2018, p. B1.

17. more than twenty thousand beds: Carl Campanile, Julia Marsh, Bernadette Hogan, and Nolan Hicks, “New York Has Thrown Away 20,000 Hospital Beds, Complicating Coronavirus Fight,” New York Post, March 17, 2020, https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/new-york-has-thrown-away-20000-hospital-beds-complicating-coronavirus-fight.

18. emergency field hospital in Central Park: Ron Lee, “Emergency Hospital Being Constructed in Central Park,” Spectrum News, NY1, March 29, 2020.

19. Local morgues had run out of space: Alan Feuer and Andrea Salcedo, “New York City Deploys 45 Mobile Morgues as Virus Strains Funeral Homes,” New York Times, April 2, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/nyregion/coronavirus-new-york-bodies.html.

20. Hospitals that served more than 100 million: Lauren Leatherby, John Keefe, Lucy Tompkins, Charlie Smart, and Matthew Conlen, “‘There’s No Place for Them to Go’: I.C.U. Beds Near Capacity Across U.S.,” New York Times, December 9, 2020.

21. many slashed pay: Lev Facher, “Amid Coronavirus, Private Equity-Backed Company Slashes Benefits for Emergency Room Doctors,” STAT, April 1, 2020, https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/01/slashes-benefits-for-doctors-coronavirus.

22. more than $8.5 million in total compensation: Steve Twedt, “UPMC CEO Compensation Jumps to $8.54 Million,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 17, 2019, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2019/05/17/UPMC-compensation-Jeffrey-Romoff-8-54-million/stories/201905170111#:~:text=UPMC%20President%20and%20CEO%20Jeffrey,increase%20from%20the%20previous%20year.

23. publicly dismissing the threat: Matt Stoller, “Why Does a Hospital Monopoly Want to Re-Open the Economy?” BIG (newsletter), May 9, 2020, https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-does-a-hospital-monopoly-want.

Chapter 9: “There’s Always a Way of Making Money”

1. Roughly half of all American households: Patricia Cohen, “We All Have a Stake in the Stock Market, Right? Guess Again,” New York Times, February 9, 2018, p. B1, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/economy/stocks-economy.html.

2. the Dow Jones Industrial Average: Liz Frazier, “The Coronavirus Crash of 2020,” Forbes, February 11, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfrazierpeck/2021/02/11/the-coronavirus-crash-of-2020-and-the-investing-lesson-it-taught-us/?sh=37b5f02346cf.

3. language drafted by the meatpacking industry: Michael Grabell and Bernice Yeung, “Emails Show the Meatpacking Industry Drafted an Executive Order to Keep Plants Open,” ProPublica, September 14, 2020, https://www.propublica.org/article/emails-show-the-meatpacking-industry-drafted-an-executive-order-to-keep-plants-open.

4. risked their lives to continue carving up pork: Jane Mayer, “How Trump Is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic,” The New Yorker, July 20, 2020.

5. Consolidation had cut pork-processing capacity: Jen Skerritt, “Tyson Foods Helped Create the Meat Crisis It Warns Against,” Bloomberg, April 29, 2020.

6. language invited developers: Jesse Drucker, “Bonanza for Rich Real Estate Investors, Tucked Into Stimulus Package,” New York Times, March 27, 2020, p. B8.

7. grandfather had launched a yacht club: Glantz, op. cit., Chapter Three.

8. the mortgage department: Glantz, op. cit., Chapter Seven.

9. nine-bedroom, ten-bath manse: Ibid.

10. he knew Trump as a fellow traveler: Ibid.

11. Mnuchin’s biological mother: James B. Stewart and Alan Rappeport, “Steven Mnuchin Tried to Save the Economy. Not Even His Family Is Happy,” New York Times, August 31, 2020, p. A1.

12. When Dimon turned him down: Ibid.

13. impersonation of Inspector Clouseau: Ibid.

14. “Africa is rife with hidden danger”: Louise Linton, “How My Dream Gap Year in Africa Turned into a Nightmare,” Telegraph, July 1, 2016.

15. unencumbered by such conditions: Jeff Stein and Peter Whoriskey, “The U.S. Plans to Lend $500 Billion to Large Companies. It Won’t Require Them to Preserve Jobs or Limit Executive Pay,” Washington Post, April 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/28/federal-reserve-bond-corporations.

16. the language merely required: Michael Grunwald, “The Corporate Bailout Doesn’t Include the Limits Democrats Promised,” Politico, April 2, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/coronavirus-corporate-bailout-deal-161374.

17. the power to gag the inspector general: Josh Wingrove and Saleha Mohsin, “Trump Claims Power to Gag Watchdog Overseeing Virus Stimulus,” Bloomberg, March 28, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-28/trump-claims-power-to-gag-watchdog-overseeing-virus-stimulus?sref=12wQtvNW.

18. Energy prices had fallen: Matt Phillips and Clifford Krauss, “American Oil Drillers Were Hanging On by a Thread. Then Came the Virus,” New York Times, March 21, 2020, p. B5.

19. dividends and share buybacks: Clark Williams-Derry, Kathy Hipple, and Tom Sanzillo, “Living Beyond Their Means: Cash Flows of Five Oil Majors Can’t Cover Dividends, Buybacks,” Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, January 2020, https://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Living-Beyond-Their-Means-Five-Oil-Majors-Cannot-Cover-Dividends_January-2020.pdf.

20. obliterated the rule: Gregg Gelzinis, Michael Madowitz, and Divya Vijay, “The Fed’s Oil and Gas Bailout Is a Mistake,” Center for American Progress, July 31, 2020, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2020/07/31/488320/feds-oil-gas-bailout-mistake.

21. financial players like Schwarzman: Jesse Eisinger, “The Bailout Is Working—for the Rich,” ProPublica, May 10, 2020.

22. “quite high grades”: Interview with Schwarzman on Mornings with Maria, Fox Business, April 7, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1062782480764306.

23. “concierge service”: Emily Flitter and Stacy Cowley, “Banks Gave Richest Clients ‘Concierge Treatment’ for Pandemic Aid,” New York Times, April 2, 2020.

24. Indiana-based maker of sporting goods: Jessica Silver-Greenberg, David Enrich, Jesse Drucker, and Stacy Cowley, “Large, Troubled Companies Got Bailout Money in Small-Business Loan Program,” New York Times, April 27, 2020, p. A1.

25. Only 143 Black entrepreneurs: Transcript of House Financial Services Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, Hearing on Access to Capital for Women-and-Minority-Owned Businesses During the New Coronavirus, July 9, 2020, accessed via CQ Transcriptions.

26. luxury hotel in San Diego: Peter Whoriskey, “Given Millions from PPP, Some Firms Fail to Keep Workers,” Washington Post, July 28, 2020, p. A20.

27. None of this prevented the company: Silver-Greenberg, Enrich, Drucker, and Cowley, op. cit.

28. managed to scrape together $10 million: Konrad Putzier, “Dallas Hotel Owner Is Biggest Beneficiary of Coronavirus Loan Program,” Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2020.

29. “our businesses are completely crushed”: Monty Bennett, “What’s Wrong With America?” Medium, March 22, 2020, https://medium.com/@AshfordCEO/whats-wrong-with-america-30bbad18aded.

30. Bennett had donated: Federal Election Commission campaign disclosures, https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?committee_id=C00618389&contributor_name=bennett%2C+monty&two_year_transaction_period=2016&two_year_transaction_period=2018&two_year_transaction_period=2020&min_date=01%2F01%2F2015&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020.

31. First came Jeff Miller: Lachlan Markay, “Trump Donor Hired Trump-Tied Lobbyists, Then Raked In Coronavirus Relief Cash,” Daily Beast, April 23, 2020, https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-top-covid-relief-recipient-hired-trump-tied-lobbyists-weeks-before-getting-aid.

32. Bailey Strategic Advisors: Ibid.

33. loophole was discovered: David McLaughlin, Patrick Clark, and Ben Brody, “Luxury Hotelier Who Backed Trump Wins Big in Small-Business Aid,” Bloomberg, April 23, 2020.

34. Bennett’s hotel empire: Jeanna Smialek and Kenneth P. Vogel, “Hotelier’s Push for $126 Million in Small-Business Aid Draws Scrutiny,” New York Times, May 2, 2020, p. A1.

35. $291 million in revenue: Ashford, Inc., 2019 Annual Report, p. 146, https://s1.q4cdn.com/428793312/files/doc_financials/2019/ar/2019-Annual-Report.pdf.

36. Bennett had taken home: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Schedule 14A (proxy statement), Ashford, Inc., April 1, 2020, http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001604738/508b422b-272f-4cfd-9353-d6fedaae60f5.html#NC 10008218X1_DEF14A_HTM_TE.

37. two weeks to return the money: Alan Rappeport, “Treasury Vows to Recoup Virus Relief Aid Claimed by Big Companies,” New York Times, April 29, 2020, p. A1.

38. his companies were being probed: Konrad Putzier, “Texas Hotelier Monty Bennett’s Companies Under SEC Investigation,” Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2020.

39. a chain of hospitals: Brian Spegele and Laura Cooper, “As Coronavirus Cases Climbed, Private-Equity-Owned Hospital Faced Closure,” Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2020.

40. paying millions of dollars a year: Ibid.

41. stepped in to purchase the hospital: Brian Spegele, “Hospital That Was Private-Equity Backed Sold to Local Health Network,” Dow Jones Institutional News, June 3, 2020.

42. refused to recognize the two unions: Kurt Bresswein, “‘We Are Out’: Some Easton Hospital Employees Are Being Replaced by St. Luke’s Staff,” lehighvalleylive.com, June 17, 2020, https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/2020/06/we-are-out-most-easton-hospital-employees-are-being-replaced-by-st-lukes-staff.html.

43. secured grants exceeding $500 million: Jesse Drucker, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Sarah Kliff, “Wealthiest Hospitals Got Billions in Bailout for Struggling Health Providers,” New York Times, May 26, 2020, p. A1.

44. tapped the government for $199 million: Ibid.

45. “What I’ve learned in life”: Schwarzman appearance at Cleveland Clinic, Virtual Ideas for Tomorrow, June 23, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO93WgowPl8.

46. By the end of 2020: “Top Charts of 2020: The Economic Fallout of Covid-19,” Economic Policy Institute, December 18, 2020, https://www.epi.org/publication/top-charts-of-2020-the-economic-fallout-of-covid-19.

47. For every ten people: Ibid.

48. those tallied as a successful case: Peter S. Goodman, Patricia Cohen, and Rachel Chaundler, “European Workers Draw Paychecks. American Workers Scrounge for Food,” New York Times, July 4, 2020, p. A1.

49. one in four Americans was struggling: Kim Parker, Rachel Minkin, and Jesse Bennett, “Economic Fallout from Covid-19 Continues to Hit Lower-Income Americans the Hardest,” Pew Research Center, September 24, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/09/24/economic-fallout-from-covid-19-continues-to-hit-lower-income-americans-the-hardest.

50. a ban on surprise billing: Kristina Peterson and Julie Bykowicz, “Congress Debates Push to End Surprise Medical Billing,” Dow Jones Institutional News, May 14, 2020.

51. Neal’s largest source of campaign funds: Akela Lacy, “Effort to Take On Surprise Medical Billing in Coronavirus Stimulus Collapses,” The Intercept, December 8, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/12/08/surprise-medical-billing-neal-covid.

52. “always a way of making money”: Schwarzman at Bernstein’s 36th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference, May 27, 2020, transcript posted on Seeking Alpha, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4350994-blackstone-group-inc-bx-ceo-steve-schwarzman-presents-bernsteins-36th-annual-strategic.

53. some $20 trillion’s worth of investments: Graham Steele, “The New Money Trust: How Large Money Managers Control Our Economy and What We Can Do About It,” American Economic Liberties Project, November 23, 2020; Alexander Sammon, “The Dawn of the BlackRock Era,” The American Prospect, May 15, 2020.

54. Days before the Fed announced: Dawn Lim and Gregory Zuckerman, “Big Money Managers Take Lead Role in Managing Coronavirus Stimulus,” Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2020.

55. Fink spoke with Mnuchin five times: Jeanna Smialek, “Top U.S. Officials Consulted with BlackRock as Markets Melted Down,” New York Times, June 25, 2021, p. A1.

56. One call included Fed Chairman Powell: Ibid.

57. fourth branch of government: Annie Massa and Caleb Melby, “In Fink We Trust: BlackRock Is Now ‘Fourth Branch of Government,’” Bloomberg Businessweek, May 21, 2020.

58. “BlackRock is already big”: Letter to Mnuchin and Powell from Members of Congress, April 22, 2020, https://chuygarcia.house.gov/sites/chuygarcia.house.gov/files/Congressional%20Letter%20to%20Fed%2 0Treas%204_22.pdf.

59. “I object to your”: BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) CEO Larry Fink on Q1 2020 Results—Earnings Call Transcript, April 16, 2020, transcript posted on Seeking Alpha, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4338041-blackrock-inc-blk-ceo-larry-fink-on-q1-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript.

60. two-week “Cooling-Off period”: Contract between BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as amended May 11, 2020, and June 29, 2020, and emailed on February 4, 2021, https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/markets/SMCCF_Investment_Management_Agreement.pdf.

61. perhaps $48 million: Massa and Melby, op. cit.

62. Nearly half that spending: Christine Idzelis, “BlackRock Rakes in Big Portion of Fed’s ETF Investments,” Institutional Investor, June 1, 2020.

63. investors rushed to get in first: Katherine Greifeld, “Traders Pour $1 Billion into Biggest Credit ETF to Front-Run Fed,” Bloomberg, March 24, 2020.

64. net influx of $34 billion: Cezary Podkul and Dawn Lim, “Fed Hires BlackRock to Help Calm Markets. Its ETF Business Wins Big,” Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2020.

65. Even deeply troubled companies: Joshua Franklin and David Shepardson, “Boeing Raises $25 Billion in Blowout Debt Sale, Eschews Government Aid,” Reuters, April 30, 2020, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-boeing-debt/boeing-raises-25-billion-in-blowout-debt-sale-eschews-government-aid-idUKKBN22C3SL.

66. ExxonMobil found takers: Joshua Franklin, “Exxon Raises $9.5 Billion to Load Up on Cash While Debt Market Still Open to New Deals,” Reuters, April 13, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-debt/exxon-raises-9-5-billion-to-load-up-on-cash-while-debt-market-still-open-to-new-deals-idUSKCN21V269.

67. It raised $10 billion: Molly Smith, “It’s a Borrower’s Bond Market as Amazon Gets Record Low Rates,” Bloomberg, June 2, 2020.

68. largest yearly toll in history: Joe Rennison, “US Corporate Bond Issuance Hits $1.919tn in 2020, Beating Full-Year Record,” Financial Times, September 2, 2020.

Chapter 10: “Grossly Underfunded and Facing Collapse”

1. “a whole lot of economists”: McConnell on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News, December 3, 2017, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-12-17-sen-mitch-mcconnell-rep/story?id=51533836.

2. “My goal from the beginning of this”: Burgess Everett, “McConnell Slams Brakes on Next Round of Coronavirus Aid,” Politico, April 21, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/mcconnell-slams-brakes-coronavirus-aid-199890.

3. “natural charisma of an oyster”: Gail Collins, “Just Steele Yourselves,” New York Times, March 6, 2009.

4. on pace to spend almost $4 trillion more: David J. Lynch, “Record Debt Load Poses Risk of ‘Fiscal Tipping Point,’” Washington Post, April 19, 2020, p. A1.

5. “I would certainly be in favor”: Carl Hulse, “McConnell Says States Should Consider Bankruptcy, Rebuffing Calls for Aid,” New York Times, April 23, 2020, p. A14.

6. The total had climbed: “Public Pension Funds Investing in Private Equity,” Private Equity & Venture Capital Spotlight (June 2018): 12.

7. unending array of fees: Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, “Fees, Fees and More Fees: How Private Equity Abuses Its Limited Partners and U.S. Taxpayers,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, May 2016, https://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/private-equity-fees-2016-05.pdf.

8. strategic meetings: Evan Halper, “CalPERS Investment Staff Receive Luxury Travel, Gifts from Financial Firms,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2010, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-aug-19-la-me-calpers-20100819-story.html.

9. personally owned stock: Justin Mitchell, “CalPERS CIO Meng Resigns amid Questions over Personal Investments,” Buyouts, August 6, 2020.

10. A state ethics probe: “CalPERS Won’t Hire a New CIO Until Next Year,” Chief Investment Officer, August 2, 2021, https://www.ai-cio.com/news/calpers-wont-hire-a-new-cio-until-next-year.

11. the industry’s returns had failed to match: Ludovic Phallipou, “An Inconvenient Fact: Private Equity Returns & the Billionaire Factory,” University of Oxford, Said Business School, Working Paper, July 15, 2020, available at SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3623820.

12. “This wealth transfer”: Ibid.

13. converting themselves into ordinary corporations: Greg Roumeliotis, “Blackstone to Switch from a Partnership to a Corporation,” Reuters, April 18, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackstone-group-results/blackstone-to-switch-from-a-partnership-to-a-corporation-idUSKCN1RU196.

14. Schwarzman’s net worth: Antoine Gara, “Blackstone Now More Valuable Than Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley amid the Coronavirus Chaos,” Forbes, March 5, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2020/03/05/blackstone-overtakes-goldman-sachs-and-morgan-stanley-amid-the-coronavirus-chaos/?sh=6a28e89d400f.

15. $8.7 trillion: Eileen Appelbaum, “CEPR Statement on New Labor Department Guidance Allowing Risky Private Equity Investments in Workers’ 401(k) Accounts,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 4, 2020, https://cepr.net/cepr-statement-on-new-labor-department-guidance-allowing-risky-private-equity-investments-in-workers-401k-accounts.

Chapter 11: “We Are Actually All One”

1. “It doesn’t discriminate”: Benioff on Mad Money, CNBC, April 8, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/04/08/salesforce-ceo-on-90-day-no-layoff-pledge-three-phase-virus-outl ook.html.

2. During the first half of 2020: Richard A. Oppel Jr., Robert Gebeloff, K. K. Rebecca Lai, Will Wright, and Mitch Smith, “The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus,” New York Times, July 5, 2020.

3. American life expectancy fell: Elizabeth Arias, Betzaida Tejada-Vera, Farida Ahmad, and Kennetrh D. Kochanek, “Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for 2020,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Vital Statistics System, Report No. 015, July 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/VSRR015-508.pdf.

4. In the twenty-seven states: Kathryn M. Leifheit, Sabriya L. Linton, Julia Raifman, Gabriel Schwartz, Emily A. Benfer, Frederick J. Zimmerman, and Craig Pollack, “Expiring Eviction Moratoriums and COVID-19 Incidence and Mortality,” November 30, 2020, prepublication paper available at SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3739576.

5. “Metallica are not playing”: Benioff, call with analysts to discuss quarterly earnings, August 25, 2020, transcript posted on Seeking Alpha, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4370780-salesforce-com-inc-s-crm-ceo-marc-benioff-on-q2-2021-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single.

6. lifting Benioff’s net worth: Salesforce Form 8-K, filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, March 27, 2020, https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1108524/000110852420000018/crm-20200327.htm.

7. brisk business in private islands: Jamie Smyth, “Wealthy Buyers Snap Up ‘Safe Haven’ Private Islands to Flee Pandemic,” Financial Times, July 24, 2020.

8. private jet industry: Tanya Powley and Claire Bushey, “Wealthy Switch to Private Jets to Avoid Coronavirus,” Financial Times, July 25, 2020.

9. In the Hamptons: Alyson Krueger, “Rapid Testing Is the New Velvet Rope,” New York Times, August 16, 2020, p. ST1.

10. “victory for stakeholder capitalism”: Benioff on Mad Money, CNBC, August 25, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/25/salesforces-marc-benioff-claims-a-victory-for-stakeholder-capitalism.html.

11. “We need a new, better global system”: Klaus Schwab, Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People, and the Planet (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021), 171.

12. “To prosper over time”: Laurence D. Fink, Annual Letter to CEOs, January 2018, http://www.corporance.es/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Larry-Fink-letter-to-CEOs-2018-1.pdf.

13. “companies and countries that do not respond”: Laurence D. Fink, “A Fundamental Reshaping of Finance,” Letter to CEOs, January 2020, https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-ceo-letter.

14. “new conscience of Wall Street”: Leslie P. Norton, “Blackrock’s Larry Fink: The New Conscience of Wall Street?” Barron’s, June 23, 2018.

15. “We will be increasingly disposed”: Ibid.

16. more than $87 billion’s worth of shares: Patrick Greenfield and Jasper Jolly, “BlackRock Joins Pressure Group Taking on Biggest Polluters,” Guardian, January 10, 2020.

17. brushfires in Australia: Attracta Mooney, “BlackRock Accused of Climate Change Hypocrisy,” Financial Times, May 17, 2020.

18. Brazil’s largest meatpacking conglomerates: Robert Mackey, “How Larry Fink, Joe Biden’s Wall Street Ally, Profits from Amazon Cattle Ranching, a Force Behind Deforestation,” The Intercept, August 30, 2019.

19. pipeline business controlled by Saudi Aramco: Davide Barbuscia and Hadeel Al Sayegh, “Saudi Aramco and BlackRock, Others, Discussing Deal Worth over $10 Billion,” Reuters, October 13, 2020.

20. “Something fundamental and profound”: Alan Murray, “America’s CEOs Seek a New Purpose for the Corporation,” Fortune, August 19, 2019, https://fortune.com/longform/business-roundtable-ceos-corporations-purpose.

21. “Companies should pay their fair share”: Klaus Schwab, “What Kind of Capitalism Do We Want?” Time, December 2, 2019.

22. looked past the savage killing: Mark Landler, “In Extraordinary Statement, Trump Stands with Saudis Despite Kashoggi Killing,” New York Times, November 21, 2018, p. A1.

23. “We will not compromise the future”: Arne Sorenson, interview with Bloomberg TV in Davos, January 21, 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-01-21/marriott-international-ceo-sorenson-on-corporate-stakeholders-culture-video?sref=12wQtvNW.

24. “There is simply nothing worse”: “A Message to Marriott International Associates from President and CEO Arne Sorenson,” March 20, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SprFgoU6aO0.

25. $2 trillion to buy back their shares: Matt Phillips, “The Stock Buyback Binge May Be Over. For Now,” New York Times, March 25, 2020, p. B4.

26. Hardly any of the signatories: Lucien Bebcuk and Roberto Tallarita, “The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance,” Cornell Law Review, July 1, 2020.

27. “reallocating resources”: Aaron Tilley, “Salesforce Notifies Some Staff of Job Cuts,” Dow Jones Institutional News, August 26, 2020.

28. less than 3 percent of the workforce: Rosalie Chan, Benjamin Pimentel, Ashley Stewart, Paayal Zaveri, and Jeff Elder, “The Tech Industry Has a Terrible Track Record on Diversity. Here’s How 17 Companies That Spoke Out Against Racism This Week Say They Plan to Improve,” Business Insider, June 6, 2020.

29. form of cultural appropriation: Austin Weinstein, “Salesforce’s Hawaii Obsession Provokes Debate over Appropriation,” Bloomberg, September 28, 2018.

Chapter 12: “We’re Not Safe”

1. 57 percent more items: Karen Weise, “Amazon Hires at a Record Clip: 1,400 Per Day,” New York Times, November 28, 2020, p. A1.

2. the company shipped 415 million packages: Frank Holland, “Amazon Is Delivering Nearly Two-Thirds of Its Own Packages as E-commerce Continues Pandemic Boom,” CNBC, August 13, 2020.

3. roughly five hundred thousand employees: Matt Day, “Amazon Will Hire 75,000 Logistics Workers in Latest Hiring Binge,” Bloomberg, May 13, 2021.

4. double the number of only two years earlier: Weise, op cit.

5. a fortune in excess of $200 billion: Michelle Toh, “Jeff Bezos Is Now Worth a Whopping $200 Billion,” CNN Business, August 28, 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/27/tech/jeff-bezos-net-worth-200-billion-intl-hnk/index.html.

6. The United States was one of only a handful: Jody Heymann, Hye Jin Rho, John Schmitt, and Alison Earle, “Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, May 2009, https://cepr.net/documents/publications/paid-sick-days-2009-05.pdf.

7. “We cannot slow the coronavirus outbreak”: Pelosi Statement on Introduction of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, March 11, 2020, https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-releases/pelosi-statement-on-introduction-of-the-families-first-coronavirus-response-act.

8. companies with five hundred or more people: U.S. Department of Labor, Summary of Families First Coronavirus Response Act, https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employee-paid-leave.

9. workers reported not receiving the money: Caroline O’Donovan, “Amazon Says Employees Quarantined by a Doctor Will Get Paid, but So Far Many Say They Haven’t,” BuzzFeed News, April 11, 2020, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/amazon-workers-not-getting-quarantine-pay.

10. Amazon outsourced the dirty work: Amazon, 2019 U.S. Political Contribution and Expenditure Policy and Statement, https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_downloads/governance/2019-Political-Expenditures-Statement.pdf.

11. “Dear Amazonians”: “A Message from our CEO and Founder,” Amazon blog, March 21, 2020, https://blog.aboutamazon.com/company-news/a-message-from-our-ceo-and-founder.

12. Amazon charged $39.99: Alex Harman, “Prime Gouging: How Amazon Raised Prices to Profit from the Pandemic,” Public Citizen, September 9, 2020, https://www.citizen.org/article/prime-gouging.

13. Amazon’s logistics operation was swamped: Ron Knox and Shaoul Sussman, “How Amazon Used the Pandemic to Amass More Monopoly Power,” The Nation, June 26, 2020.

14. flouting an executive order: Sam Levin, “Revealed: Amazon Told Workers Paid Sick Leave Doesn’t Cover Warehouses,” Guardian, May 7, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/07/amazon-warehouse-workers-coronavirus-time-off-california.

15. warehouse outside Minneapolis: Chris Mills Rodrigo, “Amazon Workers Protest Termination of Unlimited Unpaid Time Off Policy,” The Hill, April 27, 2020.

16. many of them immigrants from East Africa: Matt Day, “Amazon Covid-19 Outbreak in Minnesota Was Worse Than Local County,” Bloomberg, June 30, 2020.

17. rates of infection were much lower: Daniel Uria, “Amazon Says Nearly 20,000 Workers Have Tested Positive for COVID-19,” United Press International, October 1, 2020, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/10/01/Amazon-says-nearly-20000-workers-have-tested-positive-for-COVID-19/2551601595828.

18. Amazon’s analysis was fatuous: Spencer Soper, “Amazon Study of Workers’ Covid Is Faulted over Lack of Key Data,” Bloomberg News, October 6, 2020.

19. “someone just put a bunch of numbers together”: Ibid.

20. “He’s not smart, or articulate”: Paul Blest, “Leaked Amazon Memo Details Plan to Smear Fired Warehouse Organizer: ‘He’s Not Smart or Articulate,’” Vice News, April 2, 2020, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dm8bx/leaked-amazon-memo-details-plan-to-smear-fired-warehouse-organizer-hes-not-smart-or-articulate.

21. “general agreement” among the participants: Ibid.

22. sophisticated methods to assess their performance: Jodi Kantor, Karen Weise, and Grace Ashford, “The Amazon That Customers Don’t See,” New York Times, June 15, 2021.

23. an activist shareholder: David Sirota, “Amazon & Trump Agency Blocked Worker Safety Initiative Amid Pandemic,” TMI, May 1, 2020, https://sirota.substack.com/p/scoop-amazon-and-trump-agency-blocked.

24. The initiative disappeared: Ibid.

25. “fungible units of pick-and-pack potential”: Tim Bray, “Bye Amazon,” a blog post, May 4, 2020, https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2020/04/29/Leaving-Amazon#p-3.

26. faux guillotine: Emily Kirkpatrick, “There’s Now a Guillotine Set Up Outside Jeff Bezos’s Mansion,” Vanity Fair, August 28, 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/08/jeff-bezos-guillotine-protest-amazon-workers.

27. job listings for intelligence analysts: Robert Hackett, “After Public Outcry, Amazon Deletes Listings for 2 Intelligence Jobs That Involved Tracking ‘Labor Organizing Threats,’” Fortune, September 1, 2020, https://fortune.com/2020/09/01/amazon-anti-union-jobs-tracking-labor-organizing-threats-jeff-bezos.

28. touting the company’s achievements: Nicolas Reimann, “Amazon Sent out a Scripted News Segment, and 11 Stations Aired It,” Forbes, May 26, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/05/26/amazon-sent-out-a-scripted-news-segment-and-11-stations-aired-it/#51b7d87848b9.

Chapter 13: “This Is Killing People”

1. 40 percent of the Lombardy market: Andrea Sparaciari, “San Raffaele: dopo l’inchiesta sulla truffa da 10 milioni, scoppa il caso dei bilanci segreti. E per salvarsi chiama Maroni,” Business Insider Italia, July 2, 2020, https://it.businessinsider.com/san-raffaele-inchiesta-truffa-da-10-milioni-sbilanci-segreti-maroni/amp.

2. Italy was spending far less on health care: OECD.Stat, Health expenditure data, 2019, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?ThemeTreeId=9.

3. impact on intensive care units: Rapporto Sanita 2018, 40 Anni del Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, p. 16, https://programmazionesanitaria.it/_progsan/2018/SSN40-Rapporto.pdf.

4. Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital: Stefano Colombo, “Quanto ci vuole a prenotare una visita medica in Lombardia? Dipende da quanto potete pagare,” The Submarine, June 29, 2020, https://thesubmarine.it/2020/06/29/prenotare-visita-lombardia-attesa.

5. gifts and vacations at exclusive Caribbean resorts: Gianluca Di Feo and Michele Sasso, “Formigoni re delle Antille,” L’Espresso, April 19, 2012, https://espresso.repubblica.it/palazzo/2012/04/19/news/formigoni-re-delle-antille-1.42330.

6. 70 million euros: “Processo Maugeri, ‘70 milioni die euro tolti ai malati per i sollazzi di Formigoni,’” il Fatto Quotidiano, September 20, 2016, https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2016/09/20/processo-maugeri-70-milioni-di-euro-tolti-ai-malati-per-i-sollazzi-di-formigoni/3046192.

7. seized his yacht: Luigi Ferrarella and Giuseppe Guastella, “Maugeri, sequestrati yacht, immobili, denaro e vino pregiato per oltre 60 milioni di euro,” Corriere Della Sera, July 16, 2012, https://milano.corriere.it/milano/notizie/cronaca/12_luglio_16/san-raffaele-sequestro-2011024259999.shtml.

8. counterparts at major pharmaceutical companies: Andrea Sparaciari, “San Raffaele: dopo l’inchiesta sulla truffa da 10 milioni, scoppia il caso dei bilanci segreti. E per salvarsi chiama Maroni,” Business Insider Italia, July 2, 2020.

9. Italy’s most influential business lobby: Jason Horowitz, “The Lost Days That Made Bergamo a Coronavirus Tragedy,” New York Times, November 30, 2020, p. A1.

10. “Family doctors are a cost”: Peter S. Goodman and Gaia Pianigiani, “Why COVID Caused Such Suffering in Italy’s Wealthiest Region,” New York Times, November 21, 2020, p. B1.

11. twenty thousand more deaths: Talha Burki, “England and Wales See 20,000 Excess Deaths in Care Homes,” Lancet, May 23, 2020.

12. secret VIP lane: Jane Bradley, Selam Gebrekidan, and Allison McCann, “Waste, Negligence and Cronyism: Inside Britain’s Pandemic Spending,” New York Times, December 17, 2020.

13. “Without locking down”: Tucker Carlson monologue, “Are Coronavirus Lockdowns Working?” Fox News, April 22, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuuA0azQRGQ.

14. Sweden had gained essentially nothing: Peter S. Goodman, “Sweden Has Become the World’s Cautionary Tale,” New York Times, July 8, 2020, p. A1.

15. again sending Swedes to hospitals: Jon Henley, “Swedish Surge in Covid Cases Dashes Immunity Hopes,” Guardian, November 12, 2020.

16. pursuing so-called herd immunity: Jon Henley, “Sweden’s Covid-19 Strategist Under Fire over Herd Immunity Emails,” Guardian, August 17, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/swedens-covid-19-strategist-under-fire-over-herd-immunity-emails.

17. Only the Netherlands and Norway: “Key Issues in Long Term Care Policy,” OECD, https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/long-term-care.htm.

18. hospital beds in Sweden: OECD data on hospital beds, https://data.oecd.org/healtheqt/hospital-beds.htm.

19. “money on drinks and women”: Silvia Amaro, “Dijsselbloem Under Fire After Saying Southern Europe Wasted Money on ‘Drinks and Women,’” CNBC, March 22, 2017.

20. Germany ensured that ordinary households: Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2018), 201–3.

21. “One can at least ask”: Peter Conradi, “EU Plans for Virus Bailouts Rejected by ‘Frugal Four’ States,” Sunday Times (London), May 24, 2020.

22. Spain’s morgues were overflowing: Al Goodman, Laura Perez Maestro, Ingrid Formanek, Max Ramsay, and Ivana Kottasova, “Spain Turns Ice Rink into a Morgue as Coronavirus Deaths Pile Up,” CNN, March 24, 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/24/europe/spain-ice-rink-morgue-coronavirus-intl/index.html.

23. Italians were denied funerals: Jason Horowitz and Emma Bubola, “Italy’s Coronavirus Victims Face Death Alone, with Funerals Postponed,” New York Times, March 17, 2020, p. A1.

24. borrowing collectively: Matina Stevis-Gridneff, “E.U. Adopts Groundbreaking Stimulus to Fight Coronavirus Recession,” New York Times, July 22, 2020, p. A1.

25. the lion’s share of wages: Peter S. Goodman, Patricia Cohen, and Rachel Chaundler, “European Workers Draw Paychecks. American Workers Scrounge for Food,” New York Times, July 4, 2020, p. A1.

26. Boris Johnson called for spending: Peter S. Goodman, “With a Torrent of Money, Britain Takes Aim at Coronavirus and Austerity,” New York Times, March 12, 2020, p. A18.

27. measures worth 750 billion euros: Peter S. Goodman, “Europe’s Leaders Ditch Austerity and Fight Pandemic with Cash,” New York Times, March 26, 2020, p. A6.

28. “keep debt under control”: Andrew Atkinson and David Goodman, “U.K. Budget Deficit Narrows to Almost Half of Pandemic Level,” Bloomberg, August 20, 2021.

29. British Business Bank: Michael Pooler and Robert Smith, “Treasury Under Fire over Disclosure Silence on Virus Loans,” Financial Times, August 24, 2020.

30. £350 million’s worth of government-backed loans: Ibid.

31. That money had enabled Gupta: John Collingridge, “Follow the Money? It Isn’t Easy in Sanjeev Gupta’s Empire,” Sunday Times (London), March 15, 2020.

32. Greensill was aware: BBC Panorama, August 9, 2021.

33. paying him more than £ 1.2 million: Ibid.

34. revoked Greensill’s participation: Mark Kleinman, “Greensill Stripped of Government Guarantee on Loans to Steel Tycoon Gupta,” Sky News, March 1, 2021, https://news.sky.com/story/greensill-stripped-of-government-guarantee-on-loans-to-steel-tycoon-gupta-12233039.

35. EasyJet, a discount airline: “Coronavirus: EasyJet Plans up to 4,500 Job Cuts,” BBC, May 28, 2020, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52830665.

36. dividends for shareholders: “Easyjet Seeks State Loans—But Pays Stelios £60 Million,” Times (London), March 20, 2020.

37. £300 million infusion: Philip Georgiadis, “BA to Drop Controversial ‘Fire and Rehire’ Plan for Thousands of Staff,” Financial Times, September 16, 2020.

38. credit from the Bank of England: Simon Duke, “Big Beneficiaries of COVID-19 Loan Scheme Paid No Corporation Tax,” Times (London), June 6, 2020.

39. “We expect to benefit”: Merlin Entertainments Limited, COVID-19 Update Statement, April 7, 2020, http://northeurope.blob.euroland.com/press-releases-attachments/1206630/Publication-COVID-19-Update-Statement-_2020-04-07.pdf.

40. “substantially all of our Attractions”: Merlin Entertainments Limited, 2019 Annual Report, Exhibit A, http://northeurope.blob.euroland.com/press-releases-attachments/1219498/Publication-Announcement-2 019-Annual-Report-Other-Information-_2020-04-24.pdf.

41. it needed £12 million per month: Merlin Entertainments, 2019 Annual Report, p. 38, https://www.merlinentertainments.biz/media/3068/merlin-entertainments-annual-report-and-accounts-2019.pdf.

42. “We entered this crisis”: Chibuike Oguh, “Blackstone’s First-Quarter Profit Rises but Coronavirus Weighs,” Reuters, April 23, 2020.

43. sitting on $150 billion: Heather Perlberg, “Steve Schwarzman Sees Virus Wiping $5 Trillion From GDP,” Bloomberg, April 7, 2020.

Chapter 14: “Is This a Time to Profit?”

1. “Get it done, Daniel”: “Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Meeting with Pharmaceutical Companies,” March 2, 2020, video via C-Span, https://www.c-span.org/video/?469926-1/president-trump-meeting-pharmaceutical-executives-coronavirus.

2. World Health Organization panel: “Informal Consultation on Prioritization of Candidate Therapeutic Agents for Use in Novel Coronavirus 2019 Infection,” World Health Organization, R&D Blueprint, January 24, 2020, p. 9, https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/330680.

3. “trying to develop this medicine”: Biopharmaceutical response to COVID-19, PhRMA press event, March 6, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e951H8uSesM.

4. all financed research projects: Kathryn Ardizzone, “Role of the Federal Government in the Development of GS-5734/Remdesivir,” Knowledge Ecology International, Briefing Note 2020:1, https://www.keionline.org/BN-2020-1.

5. “an unconscionable abuse”: Letter to Daniel O’Day from consumer advocacy groups, March 25, 2020, https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/Letter-from-50-groups-to-Gilead-renounce-remdesivir-orphan-drug-claim.pdf.

6. $60 million in grants: Ibid.

7. $6.5 billion’s worth: Ekaterina Galkina Cleary, Matthew J. Jackson, Zoe Folchman-Wagner, and Fred D. Ledley, “Foundational Research and NIH Funding Enabling Emergency Use Authorization of Remdesivir for COVID-19,” Center for Integration of Science and Industry, Bentley University, preprinted paper, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.01.20144576v1.full.pdf+html.

8. ultimate angel investor: Ekaterina Galkina Cleary, Matthew J. Jackson, and Fred D. Ledley, “Government as the First Investor in Biopharmaceutical Innovation: Evidence from New Drug Approvals 2010–2019,” Institute for New Economic Thinking, Working Paper No. 133, August 5, 2020, https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/WP_133-Cleary-et-al-Govt-innovation.pdf.

9. revenues of nearly $12 trillion: Ibid.

10. nearly quadrupled in price: Mary Caffrey, “JAMA: List Prices for Key Drugs More Than Doubled over 10-Year Period,” JAMA, March 3, 2020.

11. One in four Americans: Deb Chaarushena and Gregory Curfman, “Relentless Prescription Drug Price Increases,” JAMA, March 3, 2020.

12. “Those who are bold”: William Lazonick, Matt Hopkins, Ken Jacobson, Mustafa Erdem Sakinç, and Öner Tulum, “U.S. Pharma’s Financialized Business Model,” Institute for New Economic Thinking, Working Paper No. 60, July 13, 2017, https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/papers/WP_60-Lazonick-et-al-US-Pharma-Business-Model.pdf.

13. 99 percent of their profits: Ibid.

14. a record $29 million: Jessie Hellmann, “PhRMA Spent Record-High $29 Million on Lobbying in 2019,” The Hill, January 22, 2020, https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/479403-phrma-spent-record-high-29-million-lobbying-congress-trump-administration.

15. $1 billion in compensation: Lazonick et. al., op. cit.

16. the most serious cases: Olga Khazan, “The True Cost of an Expensive Medication,” The Atlantic, September 25, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/an-expensive-medications-human-cost/407299.

17. less than 3 percent: Staff report from United States Senate Committee on Finance, “The Price of Sovaldi and Its Impact on the U.S. Health Care System,” December 2015, p. 82, https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/1%20The%20Price%20of%20Sovaldi%20and%20Its%20Impact%20on%20the%20U.S.%20Health%20Care%20System%20(Full%20Report).pdf.

18. exploiting tax loopholes: William Rice and Frank Clemente, “Gilead Sciences: Price Gouger, Tax Dodger,” Americans for Tax Fairness, July 2016, https://americansfortaxfairness.org/files/ATF-Gilead-Report-Finalv3-for-Web.pdf.

19. not paying a dime in royalties: Christopher Rowland, “An HIV Treatment Cost Taxpayers Millions. The Government Patented It. But a Pharma Giant Is Making Billions,” Washington Post, March 26, 2019.

20. “If we had lowered”: Transcript of hearing before the Committee on the Oversight and Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, May 16, 2019, Serial No. 116–24, https://www.congress.gov/event/116th-congress/house-event/LC64021/text?s=1&r=55.

21. its benefits in limiting death: “NIH Clinical Trial Shows Remdesivir Accelerates Recovery from Advanced COVID-19,” NIH News Release, April 29, 2020, https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-shows-remdesivir-accelerates-recovery-advanced-covid-19.

22. “as quickly as they can”: Joseph Walker, “U.S. Explores Emergency-Use Approval for Gilead Drug After Study Found It Helped Recovery from COVID-19,” Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2020.

23. “a tremendous responsibility”: “Remarks by President Trump in Announcement on Remdesivir,” White House, May 1, 2020, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-announcement-remdesivir.

24. “reasonable” prices for drugs: Tinker Ready, “NIH to Watch Drug Prices After AZT ‘Mistake,’” HealthWeek, September 25, 1989.

25. the NIH rescinded its rule: Warren E. Leary, “U.S. Gives Up Right to Control Drug Prices,” New York Times, April 12, 1995, p. A23.

26. “Eliminating the clause”: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, news release, April 11, 1995, https://www.ott.nih.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pdfs/NIH-Notice-Rescinding-Reasonable-Pricing-Clause.pdf.

27. a senator from Delaware: Roll Call Vote, 106th Congress—2nd Session, Vote Number 168, June 30, 2000, https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=2&vote=00168#position; as cited in Ryan Grim and Aída Chávez, “How the Senate Paved the Way for Coronavirus Profiteering, and How Congress Could Undo It,” The Intercept, March 2, 2020.

28. “as many patients as possible”: “An Open Letter from Daniel O’Day, Chairman & CEO Gilead Sciences,” Business Wire, June 29, 2020.

29. Gilead could have charged: Melanie D. Whittington and Jonathan D. Campbell, “Alternative Pricing Models for Remdesivir and Other Potential Treatments for COVID-19,” Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, May 1, 2020.

30. so-called march-in rights: Manojna Maddipatla and Michael Erman, “State Attorneys General Urge U.S. to Let Other Firms Make Gilead COVID-19 Drug,” Reuters, August 4, 2020, https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-remdesivir/state-attorneys-general-urge-u-s-to-let-other-firms-make-gilead-covid-19-drug-idUKKCN250248.

31. nearly seventy countries: Data from Global Trade Alert project at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

32. the world’s largest producer: Forum Bhatt, “India-China Standoff Threatens to Disrupt World’s Biggest Exporter of Generic Drugs,” Bloomberg, July 2, 2020.

33. Schwab used a blog post: Klaus Schwab, “India’s Opportunity in a Multiconceptual World,” World Economic Forum, January 9, 2018, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/india-opportunity-in-a-multiconceptual-world.

34. offering to pay a bounty: Vidhi Doshi, “Indian Politician Offers $1.5M Bounty for Beheading of Top Bollywood Star Deepika Paukone,” November 21, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/india-bollywood-beheading-bounty-deepika-padukone-padmavati-surajpal-amu-sanjay-leela-bhansali-hinduism-offence-a8066566.html.

35. 13 percent in China: Testimony of Janet Woodcock, Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, December 10, 2019, https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110317/witnesses/HHRG-116-IF02-Wstate-WoodcockMDM-20191210.pdf.

36. the source of 90 percent: Interview with Rosemary Gibson, health care expert at the Hastings Center, April 6, 2020.

37. he had accused China: “White House Adviser Navarro Lashes Out at China Over ‘Fake’ Test Kits,” Reuters, April 27, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-china-idUSKCN2292S8.

38. He held off on signing: Jeff Stein, Robert Costa, and Josh Dawsey, “White House Aides Torn over Trade Hawk’s Proposal as President Trump Weighs Action on China,” Washington Post, April 29, 2020.

39. prioritize American suppliers: Maegan Vazquez, “Trump Signs ‘Buy American First’ Pharma Executive Order,” CNN Wire, August 6, 2020.

40. offered CureVac $1 billion: Katrin Bennhold and David E. Sanger, “U.S. Offered ‘Large Sum’ to German Company for Access to Coronavirus Vaccine Research, German Officials Say,” New York Times, March 16, 2020, p. A12.

41. They crafted a counterbid: Ibid.

42. an overture from the European Union: “Coronavirus: UK Rejects Chance to Join EU’s COVID-19 Vaccine Scheme,” Euronews, October 7, 2020, https://www.euronews.com/2020/07/03/coronavirus-uk-considering-whether-to-join-eu-s-vaccine-scheme-as-race-is-on-to-secure-sup.

43. to spur domestic production: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, October 13, 2020, https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/10/13/trump-administration-expands-manufacturing-capacity-cytiva-components-covid-19-vaccines.html.

44. In February 2021: Hannah Kuchler, “Pfizer Expects $15bn in COVID Vaccine Revenue This Year,” Financial Times, February 2, 2021.

45. $26 billion’s worth of COVID-19 vaccines: Rebecca Robbins and Peter S. Goodman, “Pfizer Reaps Hundreds of Millions in Profit from COVID Vaccine,” New York Times, May 5, 2021, p. B1.

46. a deal with Canada: Ibid.

47. “a constant negotiation”: Stephanie Baker, Cynthia Koons, and Vernon Silver, “Inside Pfizer’s Fast, Fraught, and Lucrative Vaccine Distribution,” Bloomberg Businessweek, March 4, 2021.

48. the desperation of Israeli prime minister: Ibid.

49. 50 percent higher: Ibid.

50. denied access to Palestinians: Reality Check, “COVID-19: Palestinians Lag Behind in Vaccine Efforts as Infections Rise,” BBC, March 22, 2021, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55800921.

51. more vaccine doses than it needed: Megan Twohey, Keith Collins, and Katie Thomas, “With First Dibs on Vaccines, Rich Countries Have ‘Cleared the Shelves,’” New York Times, December 16, 2020, p. A6.

52. “ready to save humanity”: Geeta Mohan, “India Ready to Save Humanity with 2 Made in India COVID Vaccines, Says PM Modi,” India Today, January 9, 2021, https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/india-ready-to-save-humanity-with-2-made-in-india-covid-vaccines-says-pm-modi-1757390-2021-01-09.

53. all but cut off exports: Jeffrey Gettleman, Emily Schmall, and Mujib Mashal, “India Cuts Back on Vaccine Exports as Infections Surge at Home,” New York Times, March 26, 2021, p. A7.

54. That deprived poor countries: Ibid.

55. halted its vaccine distribution: Ibid.

56. “The world is on the brink”: WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at 148th session of the Executive Board, January 18, 2021, https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-148th-session-of-the-executive-board.

57. “‘Is this a time to profit?’”: Peter S. Goodman, “One Vaccine Side Effect: Global Economic Inequality,” New York Times, December 26, 2020, p. A1.

58. “IP [intellectual property] protection”: Peter S. Goodman, Apoorva Mandavilli, Rebecca Robbins, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff, “What Would It Take to Vaccinate the World Against COVID?” New York Times, May 16, 2021, p. A1.

59. “It didn’t destroy them”: Ibid.

60. “We share the mission”: Pfizer press release, January 22, 2021, https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-reach-agreement-covax-advance-purchase.

61. Pfizer was on track: Pfizer, Inc., Earnings Call Transcript for Q4 2020, February 2, 2021, transcript posted on Seeking Alpha, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4402872-pfizer-inc-pfe-ceo-dr-albert-bourla-on-q4-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript.

62. broke with the pharmaceutical lobby: Thomas Kaplan, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and Rebecca Robbins, “Taking ‘Extraordinary Measures,’ Biden Backs Suspending Patents on Vaccines,” New York Times, May 6, 2021, p. A1.

63. Covax had delivered: Maria Cheng and Lori Hinnant, “Rich Nations Dip into COVAX Supply While Poor Wait for Shots,” Associated Press, August 14, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-middle-east-africa-europe-coronavirus-pandemic-5e57879c6cb22d96b942cbc973b9296c.

64. Only 2 percent: Abdi Latif Dahir, “Booster Shots ‘Make a Mockery of Vaccine Equity,’ the W.H.O.’s Africa Director Says,” New York Times, August 20, 2021, p. A10.

65. “a mockery of vaccine equity”: Ibid.

66. a $3.5 billion purchase: Megan Specia, Sharon LaFraniere, Noah Weiland, and Michael D. Shear, “Addressing the Global Vaccine Shortage, Biden Cites ‘Our Humanitarian Obligation to Save as Many Lives as We Can,’” New York Times, June 10, 2021.

67. a “not for profit” price: Ibid.

68. the company raised the prices: Donato Paolo Mancini, Hannah Kuchler, and Mehreen Khan, “Pfizer and Moderna Raise EU Covid Vaccine Prices,” Financial Times, August 1, 2021.

69. more than $33 billion: Ibid.

Chapter 15: “We Will Get 100 Percent of Our Capital Back”

1. a Trump-branded golf course: Peter S. Goodman, “Late Wages for Migrant Workers at a Trump Golf Course in Dubai,” New York Times, August 27, 2017, p. B4.

2. migrant workers worldwide: “World Bank Predicts Sharpest Decline of Remittances in Recent History,” World Bank, April 22, 2020, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/04/22/world-bank-predicts-sharpest-decline-of-remittances-in-recent-history.

3. a state of extreme poverty: World Bank data, updated October 7, 2020, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview.

4. life-threatening levels of malnutrition: “COVID-19 Will Double Number of People Facing Food Crises Unless Swift Action Is Taken,” World Food Program, April 21, 2020, https://www.wfp.org/news/covid-19-will-double-number-people-facing-food-crises-unless-swift-action-taken.

5. Pakistan, for example: Jubilee Debt Campaign, Debt Data Portal, https://data.jubileedebt.org.uk.

6. a relative pittance: Peter S. Goodman, “How the Wealthy World Has Failed Poor Countries During the Pandemic,” New York Times, November 2, 2020, p. B1.

7. World Bank had more than doubled: Julian Duggan, Scott Morris, Justin Sandefur, and George Yang, “Is the World Bank’s COVID-19 Crisis Lending Big Enough, Fast Enough? New Evidence on Loan Disbursements,” Center for Global Development, Working Paper 554, October 2020, https://www.cgdev.org/publication/world-banks-covid-crisis-lending-big-enough-fast-enough-new-evidence-loan-disbursements.

8. immediate debt payments: Iolanda Fresnillo, “Shadow Report on the Limitations of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative: Draining Out the Titanic with a bucket?” European Network on Debt and Development, October 14, 2020, https://www.eurodad.org/g20_dssi_shadow_report.

9. “If private capital is unavoidable”: Letter from Timothy Adams, president and CEO of the Institute of International Finance, to finance minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Al-Jadaan, September 22, 2020, https://www.iif.com/Portals/0/Files/content/Regulatory/IIF%20Letter%20to%20G20%20on%20DSSI%20Sept%202020.pdf.

10. “troubled sovereign borrowers”: Ibid., https://www.iif.com/Portals/0/Files/content/Regulatory/IIF%20Letter%20to%20G20%20on%20D SSI%20Sept%202020.pdf.

11. higher per capita income: Vito Tanzi, Argentina from Peron to Macri: An Economic Chronicle (Bethesda, Maryland: Jorge Pinto Books, 2018), Chapter One.

12. Argentina defaulted: Todd Benson, “Report Looks Harshly at I.M.F.’s Role in Argentine Debt Crisis,” New York Times, July 30, 2004, p. W1.

13. “trying to change the future”: Larry Fink at event hosted by Americas Society/Council of the Americas, June 29, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_MC2Fj-JI.

14. the largest bailout in its history: Jason Lange and Hugh Bronstein, “IMF Increases Argentina Financing Deal to $56.3 Billion,” Reuters, October 26, 2018, https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-imf/imf-increases-argentina-financing-deal-to-56-3-billion-idUKKCN1N02GK.

15. “Argentina’s private creditors”: “Argentina: Technical Assistance Report-Staff Technical Note on Debt Sustainability,” International Monetary Fund, Western Hemisphere Department, March 20, 2020, https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2020/03/20/Argentina-Technical-Assistance-Report-Staff-Technical-Note-on-Public-Debt-Sustainability-49284.

16. $1 billion’s worth of bonds: Elkon financial data platform, cited in “Under the Radar: Private Sector Debt and the Coronavirus in Developing Countries,” a paper from several aid organizations including Oxfam, October 2020, https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/under-radar-private-sector-debt-and-coronavirus-developing-countries.

17. “Argentina has presented”: Hugh Bronstein, “Nobelist Stiglitz, Economists from 20 Countries Back Argentina in Debt Showdown,” Reuters, May 6, 2020.

18. fresh analysis from the IMF: “IMF Staff Technical Statement on Argentina,” International Monetary Fund, Press Release No. 20/228, June 1, 2020, https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/06/01/pr20228-argentina-imf-staff-technical-statement.

19. an Argentine naval vessel: Jacob Goldstein, “Why a Hedge Fund Seized an Argentine Navy Ship in Ghana,” National Public Radio, October 22, 2012, https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/10/22/163384810/why-a-hedge-fund-seized-an-argentine-navy-ship-in-ghana?t=1604295241384.

20. paying out $2.4 billion: Gregory Zuckerman, Julie Wernau, and Rob Copeland, “After 15 Years, a Bond Trade Now Pays Off,” Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2016.

21. fifty-five cents on the dollar: Scott Squires and Jorgelina Do Rosario, “Argentina Bonds Rally After $65 Billion Restructuring Deal,” Bloomberg, August 4, 2020.

22. “100 percent of our capital back”: “BlackRock’s Fink Says Argentina Won’t Soon Regain Investor Trust,” Buenos Aires Times, November 6, 2020, https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/blackrocks-fink-says-argentina-wont-soon-regain-investor-trust.phtml.

Chapter 16: “Not Somebody Who Is Going to Disrupt Washington”

1. Schwarzman defended Trump’s right: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Mark Vandevelde, “Schwarzman Defended Trump at CEO Meeting on Election Results,” Financial Times, November 14, 2020.

2. “It’s not going to require legislation”: Press pool report for Biden fund-raiser, July 20, 2020.

3. “coming in to disrupt Washington”: Annie Linskey and Sean Sullivan, “Biden’s Still Locked in a Bitter Fight. But the Jockeying Is Already Underway for Jobs in His Would-Be Administration,” Washington Post, November 1, 2020.

4. including the CARES Act: Brian Schwartz, “Amazon Hires Lobbyist Brother of Biden White House Counselor,” CNBC, December 28, 2020.

5. more than one-fourth lower: David Cooper, “Raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 by 2024 Would Lift Pay for Nearly 40 Million Workers,” Economic Policy Institute, February 5, 2019, https://www.epi.org/publication/raising-the-federal-minimum-wage-to-15-by-2024-would-lift-pay-for-nearly-40-million-workers.

Chapter 17: “The Money Is Right There in the Community Now”

1. Five years later: Data compiled by Center for Local Economic Strategies.

2. more than 300 to 1: Lawrence Mishel and Jori Kandra, “CEO Compensation Surged 14% in 2019 to $21.3 Million,” Economic Policy Institute, August 18, 2020, https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-surged-14-in-2019-to-21-3-million-ceos-now-earn-320-times-as-much-as-a-typical-worker.

3. $3 trillion in assets: Steven Deller, Ann Hoyt, Brent Hueth, and Reka Sundaram-Stukel, “Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives,” University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, 2009, https://resources.uwcc.wisc.edu/Research/REIC_FINAL.pdf.

4. the formerly incarcerated: Lucius Couloute and Daniel Kopf, “Out of Prison & Out of Work: Unemployment Among Formerly Incarcerated People,” Prison Policy Initiative, July 2018, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html.

Chapter 18: “Put Money in People’s Pockets”

1. “a precious asset”: Guy Standing, Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen (London: Pelican, 2017).

2. a basic income program: Peter S. Goodman, “Free Cash to Fight Inequality? California City Is First in U.S. to Try,” New York Times, June 3, 2018, p. BU1.

3. survey from the Federal Reserve: “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2018,” Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, May 2019, https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2019-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2018-dealing-with-unexpected-expenses.htm.

4. up to $10,000 a month: Rob Berger, “Does Joe Biden’s Choice of Kamala Harris Signal Support for a $2,000 Monthly Stimulus Check?” Forbes, August 12, 2020.

5. “We may have to think”: Nancy Pelosi, interview on MSNBC, April 27, 2020, https://www.msnbc.com/stephanie-ruhle/watch/pelosi-says-guaranteed-income-may-be-worth-considering-amid-coronavirus-hardships-82606661627.

6. has been gaining adherents: See, for example, Pavlina R. Tcherneva, The Case for a Job Guarantee (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 2020).

7. “The most affluent”: Thomas Paine, “Agrarian Justice,” 1797, accessed via Wikisource, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Agrarian_Justice.

8. “it is a right”: Ibid.

9. “The time has come”: Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967), as cited in Jordan Weissman, “Martin Luther King’s Economic Dream: A Guaranteed Income for All Americans,” The Atlantic, August 28, 2013.

10. might run $20 billion: Ibid.

11. “As business leaders”: Marc Benioff, “How Business Leaders Can Help Narrow Income Inequality,” Fortune, January 17, 2017.

12. Finland’s spending: OECD.org, public unemployment spending.

13. They were less likely: Tera Allas, Jukka Maksimainen, James Manyika, and Navjot Singh, “An Experiment to Inform Universal Basic Income,” McKinsey & Company, Public and Social Sector Practice, September 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Public%20and%20Social%20Sector/Our%20Insights/An%20experiment%20to%20inform%20universal%20basic%20income/An-experiment-to-inform-universal-basic-income-vF.pdf.

14. Finland opted not to go: Peter S. Goodman, “Finland Has Second Thoughts About Giving Free Money to Jobless People,” New York Times, April 24, 2018.

15. Stockton, California, released the findings: Annie Lowrey, “Stockton’s Basic-Income Experiment Pays Off,” The Atlantic, March 3, 2021.

16. subsidized childcare: Peter S. Goodman, “Cuts to Child Care Subsidy Thwart More Job Seekers,” New York Times, May 24, 2010, p. A1.

17. the job-training classes: Peter S. Goodman, “‘Back at Square One’: As States Repurpose Welfare Funds, More Families Fall Through Safety Net,” HuffPost, June 19, 2012, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/breakdown-tanf-needy-families-states_n_1606242?ri18n=true.

18. poor families with children: Ibid.

19. Congress cut funding: Isaac Shapiro, David Reich, Chloe Cho, and Richard Kogan, “Trump Budget Would Cut Block Grants Dramatically, Underscoring Danger of Block-Granting Social Program,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 28, 2017, https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/trump-budget-would-cut-block-grants-dramatically-underscoring-danger-of.

20. “we will make work pay”: Andrew Osborn, “Osborne Tries to Limit Welfare Overhaul Fallout,” Reuters, April 2, 2013, https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-politics-welfare/osborne-tries-to-limit-welfare-overhaul-fallout-idUKBRE9310N920130402.

21. low-income people suffered: Pascale Bourquin, Robert Joyce, and Agnes Norris Keiller, “Living Standards, Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2020,” Institute for Fiscal Studies, p. 15, https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/R170-Living-standards-poverty-and-inequality-in-the-UK-2019-2020%20.pdf.

22. the share of British children: Ibid., p. 20.

23. American parents would receive: Jason DeParle, “In the Stimulus Bill, a Policy Revolution in Aid for Children,” New York Times, March 8, 2021, p. A1.

24. reduce child poverty: “Child Poverty Drops in July with the Child Tax Credit Expansion,” Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University, August 20, 2021, https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/monthly-poverty-july-2021.

Chapter 19: “At War Against Monopoly Power”

1. attempts to break up: Cecilia Kang and David McCabe, “House Lawmakers Condemn Big Tech’s ‘Monopoly Power’ and Urge Their Breakups,” New York Times, October 7, 2020, p. B1.

2. “It’s rare to see Congress”: Matt Stoller, “Congress Forced Silicon Valley to Answer for Its Misdeeds. It Was a Glorious Sight,” Guardian, July 30, 2020.

3. the filing of formal charges: Adam Satariano, “Amazon Charged with Antitrust Violations by European Regulators,” New York Times, November 11, 2020, p. B5.

4. a court had barred Amazon: Sam Schechner, “Amazon to Reopen French Warehouses After Deal with Unions,” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2020.

5. Italians had set aside: Adam Satariano and Emma Bubola, “Pasta, Wine and Inflatable Pools: How Amazon Conquered Italy in the Pandemic,” New York Times, September 28, 2020, p. B1.

6. the reimposition of a lockdown: Liz Alderman, “‘We Want to Open!’ French Shopkeepers Revolt Against Orders to Close,” New York Times, November 4, 2020, p. B3.

7. The Crown had lowered levies: Matt Stoller, “The Boston Tea Party Was a Protest Against Monopoly,” BIG, July 1, 2019, https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-boston-tea-party-was-a-protest.

8. During the last three decades: Matt Stoller, Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019), Chapter One.

9. introducing the Federal Trade Commission: Ibid.

10. a “menace for the future”: Ibid.

11. Farmers and workers paid: Ibid.

12. nearly one-fourth of all income: Emmanuel Saez, “Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States,” Technical Notes 201506, World Inequality Lab, 2015, as cited in Stoller, Goliath, op. cit.

13. “The measure of the restoration”: First Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 4, 1933; via Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos1.asp.

14. Roosevelt had wrangled: Stoller, Goliath, op. cit., Chapter Four.

15. Roosevelt sicced his Justice Department: Ibid., Chapter Six.

16. “Co-opting the rhetoric of liberty”: Ibid., Chapter Nine.

17. “It changed our view”: Edmund W. Kitsch, “The Fire of Truth: A Remembrance of Law and Economics at Chicago, 1932–1970,” Journal of Law and Economics 26, no. 1 (April 1983): p. 183, as cited in Stoller, Goliath, op. cit., Chapter Nine.

18. The American Enterprise Institute: Stoller, Goliath, op. cit., Chapter Nine.

19. financed research by Bork: Ibid.

20. The Business Roundtable convened: Ibid., Chapter Thirteen.

21. The laws were costing: Eileen Shanahan, “‘Fair Trade’ Laws Coming to an End,” New York Times, December 13, 1975.

22. “maximization of consumer welfare”: Robert H. Bork, The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself (New York: Basic Books, 1978), 7.

23. wages throughout American retail: David Moberg, “How Wal-Mart Shapes the World,” The American Prospect, April 19, 2011, https://prospect.org/power/wal-mart-shapes-world/.

24. “It was that Bork convinced”: Stoller, Goliath, op. cit., Chapter Fifteen.

25. “In other words”: Lina M. Khan, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” The Yale Law Journal, 126, no. 3 (January 2017), https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox.

Chapter 20: “Taxes, Taxes, Taxes. The Rest Is Bullshit.”

1. the twenty wealthiest Americans: Analysis of 2018 Forbes 400 Richest People in America and Forbes America’s Top 50 Givers, conducted by Gabriel Zucman.

2. more than seven times: Ibid.

3. “It’s indirect”: William D. Cohan, “‘I Can’t Prove It to You, But I Know It’s True’: Jamie Dimon Puts His Faith in Trump’s Tax Plan,” Vanity Fair, December 8, 2017.

4. An expansive study: David Hope and Julian Limberg, “The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich,” London School of Economics, December 16, 2020, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107919.

5. the share of all income: World Inequality Database, Income Inequality, USA, 1913–2019, https://wid.world/country/usa.

6. In Italy, the top 1 percent: Ibid.

7. stash away some $7.6 trillion: Gabriel Zucman, The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).

8. one-fifth of their income: John Guyton, Patrick Langetieg, Daniel Reck, Max Risch, and Gabriel Zucman, “Tax Evasion at the Top of the Income Distribution: Theory and Evidence,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 28542, March 2021, https://www.nber.org/papers/w28542.

9. evaded $381 billion’s worth of taxes: “Trends in the Internal Revenue Service’s Funding and Enforcement,” Congressional Budget Office, July 2020.

10. Between 2010 and 2017: Paul Kiel and Jesse Eisinger, “How the IRS Was Gutted,” ProPublica, December 11, 2018, https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted.

11. households making more than $1 million: “Millionaires and Corporate Giants Escape IRA Audits Again in FY 2020,” TRAC, Newhouse School of Communications and Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, March 18, 2021, https://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/latest/641.

12. Every dollar spent: Richard Rubin, “IRS Enforcement Spending Yields $6 for Every $1, Lew Says,” Bloomberg, May 8, 2013.

13. He legalized the practice: Emily Stewart, “Stock Buybacks, Explained,” Vox, August 5, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/8/2/17639762/stock-buybacks-tax-cuts-trump-republicans.

14. while stock and stock options: Alex Edmans, Xavier Gabaix, and Dirk Jenter, “Executive Compensation: A Survey of Theory and Evidence,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 23596, July 2017, p. 152, https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w23596/w23596.pdf.

15. a secret trove: Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel, “The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax,” ProPublica, June 8, 2021, https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax.

16. Congress has dropped: Saez and Zucman, op. cit., Chapter Three.

17. “They would leave”: Julia La Roche, “Steve Schwarzman: A Wealth Tax Would Make Businesses Up and Leave,” Yahoo Finance, October 14, 2019, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackstone-ceo-steve-schwarzman-on-wealth-tax-201228998.html.

18. “A wealth tax is almost impossible”: Yen Nee Lee, “Jamie Dimon Says He’s OK with Higher Taxes on the Rich, but Wealth Tax Is Almost Impossible,’” CNBC, September 23, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/23/jp-morgans-jamie-dimon-on-taxing-the-rich-donald-trumps-tax-cuts.html.

19. the number of countries: “The Role and Design of Net Wealth Taxes in the OECD,” OECD Tax Policy Studies, Paper No. 26, 2018, p. 11, https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/taxation/the-role-and-design-of-net-wealth-taxes-in-the-oecd_9789264290303-en#page3.

20. “It’s a riverboat gamble”: Larry Summers and Emmanuel Saez on On Point, WBUR, October 23, 2019, https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/10/23/wealth-tax-democrats-warren-sanders.

21. Summers had sounded: Peter S. Goodman, “Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy,” New York Times, October 9, 2008, p. A1.

22. “pitting workers against companies”: Summers and Saez, op. cit.

23. roughly double the highest tax rate: Robert Frank, “Wealthy May Face Up to 61% Tax Rate on Inherited Wealth Under Biden Plan,” CNBC, May 3, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/wealthy-may-face-up-to-61percent-tax-rate-on-inherited-wealth-under-biden-plan.html.

24. $80 billion on IRS enforcement: Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport, “Biden Seeks $80 Billion to Beef Up I.R.S. Audits of High-Earners,” New York Times, April 28, 2021, p. A1.

25. a global minimum corporate tax rate: Alan Rappeport, “Finance Ministers Meet in Venice to Finalize Global Tax Agreement,” New York Times, July 10, 2021, p. B1.

Conclusion: “Our Cup Runneth Over”

1. “We pick the good neighborhoods”: Schwarzman at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Virtual Conference, December 9, 2020, transcript posted on Seeking Alpha, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4393944-blackstone-group-inc-bx-ceo-stephen-schwarzman-presents-goldman-sachs-u-s-financial-services.

2. “It’s really like an avalanche”: Brian Chappatta, “Schwarzman Sees ‘Avalanche’ of Opportunities from Tax-Hike Risk,” Bloomberg, June 23, 2021.

3. “Wow, what a quarter”: Benioff on Mad Money, CNBC, December 1, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/marc-benioff-slack-is-one-step-in-salesforces-path-to-double-revenue.html.

4. “It might be software”: Michelle F. Davis, “Dimon Asks Bankers to Call Him with Their M&A Ideas for JPMorgan,” Bloomberg, December 8, 2020.

5. “Our cup runneth over”: JPMorgan Chase & Co., 1Q21 Financial Results, Earnings Call Transcript, April 14, 2021, https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/investor-relations/documents/quarterly-earnings/2021/1st-quarter/1q21-earnings-transcript.pdf.

6. the coronavirus had killed: Zachary Parolin, Megan Curran, Jordan Matsudaira, Jane Waldfogel, and Christopher Wimer, “Monthly Poverty Rates in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Center on Poverty & Social Policy, School of Social Work, Columbia University, Poverty and Social Policy Working Paper, October 15, 2020, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5743308460b5e922a25a6dc7/t/5f87c59e4cd0011fabd38973/1602733471158/COVID-Projecting-Poverty-Monthly-CPSP-2020.pdf.

7. gained a collective $1.3 trillion: Chuck Collins, “Updates: Billionaire Wealth, U.S. Job Losses and Pandemic Profiteers,” Inequality.org, February 24, 2021, https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic.

8. “I think we’re going to”: Kevin Stankiewicz, “CEO of World’s Largest Money Manager Sees Stocks Rallying in 2021 but Not as Much as Last Year,” CNBC, January 14, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/14/blackrocks-fink-stocks-to-rally-in-2021-but-not-as-much-as-last-year.html.

9. “I’m proud to be joining”: Rupert Neate and Simon Murphy, “Former Chancellor George Osborne to Become Full-Time Banker,” Guardian, February 1, 2021.

10. totaled about $2.6 billion: Sissi Cao, “Billionaires Made Record Profit, Donated Record Lows in 2020,” Observer, January 5, 2021.

11. “I also want to thank”: Blue Origin Jeff Bezos Post-Flight Press Conference Transcript, July 20, 2021, https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/blue-origin-jeff-bezos-post-flight-press-conference-transcript.

12. “a couple of hundred years”: Mathias Döpfner, “Jeff Bezos Reveals What It’s Like to Build an Empire—And Why He’s Willing to Spend $1 Billion a Year to Fund the Most Important Mission of His Life,” Business Insider, April 28, 2018.

13. Bezos had reportedly poured: Kevin T. Dugan, “Everything to Know About Tuesday’s Blue Origin Space Launch with Jeff Bezos,” Fortune, July 19, 2021.

14. That was enough to save: Joe McCarthy, “Jeff Bezos Just Spent $5.5B to Be in Space for 4 Minutes. Here Are 7 Things That Money Could Help Solve,” Global Citizen, July 20, 2021, https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/jeff-bezos-space-flight-money-better-uses.