Autorentext

CASEY MICHEL is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program with the Human Rights Foundation. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, named by The Economist as one of the "best books to read to understand financial crime," and Foreign Agents, which received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly and was described by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the "biggest foreign-policy book releases of 2024."

His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and he has appeared on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, among other stations. He has also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the links between illicit financial networks and national security. He received his Master's degree in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Columbia University's Harriman Institute, and he is currently sanctioned by the Russian regime for his work. United States of Oligarchy is his third book.

Klappentext

A staggering examination of how America's wealthiest infiltrated the government and allied with dictators, transforming the U.S. from democracy to oligarchy.

From the Rockefellers to the Vanderbilts, the world's richest families have for centuries built their fortunes on American soil, serving as capitalistic success stories who grew their wealth among free markets and democratic protections. Now, that balance has shifted. Rather than the moguls and magnates of previous generations, the wealthiest individuals of the 21st century are oligarchs unto themselves - and owe much of their wealth to the most anti-democratic forces around the world.

There is Elon Musk, who has flung the doors of financing and influence open to dictators from Russia to China; Jared Kushner, who has brought in billions from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates while opening up unprecedented leverage for dictatorships; and a range of new techno-authoritarians trying to create a post-American future. And there are even more who have shunned the public spotlight, transforming entire industries into play-things for dictatorships in secret - all while the Trump administration sells American policy to the highest bidders across the globe, from Qatar to Turkey to Vietnam.

In United States of Oligarchy, Casey Michel illuminates a story decades in the making, from the earliest efforts to corral and combat American oligarchs, to the new crop of oligarchs dominating American democracy and making the world safe for dictatorship - all for their own benefit.

The oligarchs have risen and are attempting to reign. The only question remaining is whether or not it's too late to stop them.