Attention Economy


Saturday, January 18, 2025

Plutocrats versus Populists

America’s New Plutocracy
https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2025/01/americas-new-plutocracy
The second Trump administration will be the wealthiest democratically elected government in history.
 
How Long Can the Alliance Between Tech Titans and the MAGA Faithful Last?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/opinion/donald-trump-tech-musk-bannon.html
 
Musk and MAGA Make for An Uncomfortable Fit
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elon-musk-steve-bannon-trump-adviser-influence-e2f7cc4f
Staff grumbled about Musk’s access, but Trump family shows support.

Trump’s Impossible Task: Delivering for the Working Class and Billionaires
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-11-18/trump-s-impossible-task-delivering-for-the-working-class-and-billionaires
He’s attempting to pull off plutocratic populism, but the math doesn’t square.


Europeans must be scratching their heads. America’s Big Tech companies may be widely loathed at home, but they are envied on a continent that struggles to create its own innovative wealth creators. The truth, however, is that these companies’ huge market capitalizations owe as much to their monopoly status as to innovation. They have long downplayed the significant social harms they do, and they constantly lobby policymakers to block regulation. It is little wonder that their stranglehold on American culture is now deeply resented by left and right alike.