Plutocracy

This page is ONLY about the Citicorp Plutonomy Reports - which has many posts on the RWER Blog.

For main page on Plutonomy, Plutocracy versu Democracy,

see Capitalism, Plutonomy, and the Pursuit of Wealth

The Vanishing Citicorp Plutonomy Reports

the “American dream” is a con played by the rich on the rest:

Perhaps one reason that societies allow plutonomy, is because enough of the electorate believe they have a chance of becoming a Plutoparticipant. Why kill it off, if you can join it? In a sense this is the embodiment of the “American dream”. But if voters feel they cannot participate, they are more likely to divide up the wealth pie, rather than aspire to being truly rich.

Citigroup’s main point, though, is to not worry about the USA’s low savings rate, because the rich are driving the economy, and they have money to burn so why shouldn’t they burn it? (Nice point to remember when your bourgeois-liberal friend starts ranting about those horrible irresponsible Americans with their maxed-out credit cards and gas-guzzling SUVs.) And to not worry about the stuff news reports on the economy always talk about, like lack of consumer confidence and high gas prices. Because the rich, unlike the majority, are plenty confident and can afford all the gas they want no matter how high the price goes, and they’re the ones “dictating economic demand”, so who cares about anyone else?

And of course, to buy luxury-goods stocks