Billionaires go wild stateside

Ray Madoff The Second EstateHow the tax code made an Americanaristocracy192pp. Chicago University Press. £19 (US$25). Vanessa S. Williamson The Price of Democracy The revolutionary power of taxation i

“The dollar is the cornerstone of US power… it is the main weapon used by the US to maintain its power… [But] as soon as the political leadership decided to use the US dollar as a political instrument

Goldbugs are not ideal dinner guests. They are rarely in a particularly cheery mood: one pro-gold article I recall from the optimistic 2000s was entitled We’re freaking doomed, dude. That conjures up

Gabriel Zucman has been dubbed that rarest of things: a “rock-star economist”. Having trained under the last Frenchman to receive this label—Thomas Piketty—the 39-year-old has become a global expert o

“Perhaps he’ll do an Elvis and have a fatal heart attack on the loo,” a friend muttered this week. Like most investors, she is having trouble getting used to the idea that the US president has become

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci’s words, written in prison near Bari almost 100 years ago, ring out to us now. The politi