I have read this book and agree with most of Hogarth's review of a recently published book entitled Plutocrats. It should be kept in mind that the book's author, Christia Freeland, has worked as a journalist for important financial media and has had extensive contacts with top capitalists. As I see the book, its main contribution is not Freeland's views--she understandably would not bite the hands that have fed her career, but the inside views expressed by Wall Street major players about many of the current issues regarding the economy and capitalism.
Plutocrats expresses both this anger at the super-rich for their profit at the expense of the rest of us, but it is also unsure about what can be done about it. Freeland attacks the “philanthro-capitalists” for their charitable solutions to inequality, but she also identifies aspiring billionaires as the social force motivating protests in Egypt and Russia. Clear ways forward are hard to come by, but Freeland seems to be making the case that the bankers and lack-of-regulation have put us in this mess in what could otherwise be a healthy capitalism. She suggests that by regulating and mitigating the effects of the profit-motive, a more equal and just capitalism can be obtained.
