The Financial Crisis in Perspective (Collection)

Part IV: Oligarchy

Oligarchy—government by a powerful, dominant class with deep-vested interests.

Extreme money created a powerful coalition of financiers, business interests, regulators, and politicians that increasingly dominated the economy. This oligarchy set the agenda and set policies, which benefited them and their constituencies. Similar backgrounds, education, and interests, especially a common cognitive view of the world, shaped the oligarchy.