Dan Nexon at LGM makes an important point about the link between most of the shitty things happening in the world today and a broadly undemocratic international wealthy class. Putin is likely richer than Jeff Bezos, or could be if he wanted to. It's not just the various undemocratic regimes of rich men like Putin, bin Salman or Xi. It's the fact that they have influence beyond their borders. Putin and Russian money helped sell Brexit, which is turning Britain into a dysfunctional disaster.
And it extends to these shores. There are plenty of rich Americans who hide their money and influence from public accountability. They shape laws behind closed doors and hide behind court ruling like Citizens United that were crafted by wealth-serving judges.
Take Warren's wealth tax. While a certain amount of wealth is immobile, much of it is able to move from shadowy banking system to shadowy equity markets without much oversight. It would not be enough to simply pass the wealth tax, it will have to come with a massive reconfiguration of international financial rules.
After World War II, the US shepherded the Bretton Woods agreement into existence. While it was hardly perfect, it created structures to allow for greater freedom of trade that benefited Europe, the US and developing world countries that needed investment. Globalization is a popular punching bag for populists of all stripes, but it has been generally a positive development for the very poor. However, traveling with these reforms has been the freeing of capital markets to create an international class of very wealthy people who are immune from the laws of nation states.
That has to change if the world will have a democratic future.
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