Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in July 2022.
The history of the last half century in America, Europe, and other major economies is, in large part, the story of wealth flowing upward. The most affluent people emerged from capitalism's triumph in the Cold War to loot the peace, depriving governments of the resources needed to serve their people, and leaving them tragically unprepared for the worst pandemic in a century.
In his latest book, Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World, journalist Peter S. Goodman profiles five representative members of the billionaire class, chronicling how their shocking exploitation of the global pandemic has hastened a fifty-year trend of wealth centralization.
Peter S. Goodman is the Global Economics Correspondent for the New York Times. An award-winning journalist, he’s extensively covered the Internet bubble and the Great Recession and is the author of Past Due: The End of Easy Money and the Renewal of the American Economy.
