The rich get (a lot) richer

It’s not only obscene, it’s downright scary:

The richest Americans saw their net worth soar 120 percent between 2017 and 2025, a colossal leap from the 45 percent growth they had seen over the previous nine years…. Overall, the top 1 percent now control $55.8 trillion in assets — more than the G.D.P. of the United States and China combined.

One of the central quandaries the country now faces is how to govern in an era when such vast wealth both controls a large part of the economy and is increasingly used to access political power.

The explosion of wealth did much more than increase inequality; a presidential administration run by a billionaire and the easing of legal restraints on political contributions over the past 15 years have allowed the nation’s wealthiest people to exert a growing level of influence on political power — planting the seeds of an American plutocracy.

Read more here.