Mother Jones Devotes Entire Current Magazine to Scourge of Growing American Oligarchy

With a billionaire (once again) expected to be on the presidential ballot, income inequality rising, and the Biden administration battling tech monopolies with tactics borrowed from the Gilded Age, Mother Jones devotes its first magazine issue of 2024 to the rise and ramifications of the American Oligarchy, a series that went live on its website today.

“When war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, we quickly learned how Russian oligarchs were stashing their ill-gotten gains in the United States, a process aided by American lawyers, financial advisors, and realtors,” said Mother Jones Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery. “While some may want to think that’s a dirty secret unique to Russia, we learned through our reporting that the uber wealthy in our country are operating in much the same way.”

As senior reporter Tim Murphy writes in his cover story: “This American oligarchy offers a twist on the pilfering of the commons that produced Russia’s. It is built on a different kind of resource, not nickel or potash, but you—your data, your attention, your money, your public square.”

More than two dozen journalists contributed 17 stories to Mother Jones’ 50-page special magazine—the second time in its 48-year history it committed an entire issue to one topic.

Examining the oligarchy from several vantage points, the issue includes stories on how Elon Musk has leveraged his wealth and power in Texas; how the United States became the world’s top refuge for shady foreign money; how billionaires use philanthropy for less than altruistic reasons; and how some billionaires aim to cheat death—and, potentially, taxes—through the use of special trusts designed for people who’ve opted to be cryogenically frozen.

Here is the full series of magazine and online stories:

1. How superyachts explain the world (by Tim Murphy)
2. How the United States banks the world’s shady cash (by Casey Michel)
3. Eight ways to hide an asset (by Tim Murphy)
4. Hundred-dollar bills fuel global crime and corruption, and the US is printing more than ever (by Oliver Bullough)
5. The Biden administration’s attempt to break up monopolies (by Daniel Schulman)
6. Philanthropy in America is broken, and we’re all paying the price (by Michael Mechanic)
7. “Woke capitalism” has become a right-wing obsession due to arch-conservative billionaires (by Hannah Levintova)
8. The obscenely wealthy ladies of reality TV (by Scaachi Koul)
9. Elon Musk is turning Texas into his company town (by Abby Vesoulis)
10. Donald Trump wants to be king of the oligarchs. (by David Corn)
11. Silicon Valley argues that greed is good, and it just may kill us all (by Ali Breland)
12. A look at Fisher Island, America’s richest zip code (by Dave Gilson)
13. Billionaires plan to disrupt death and keep their fortunes forever (by Kalena Thomhave)
14. Billionaire price index: the uncommon expenses of the ultrawealthy (by Tim Murphy)
15. I sold Monets and Picassos to billionaires. Here are my secrets. (by Ezra Chowaiki)
16. Luxury safe rooms, for the paranoid billionaire with everything (by Michael Mechanic)