I first referred to the American financial elite as oligarchs on September 21, 2008 and September 28, 2008.
Johnson, who is now a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, wrote a much heralded article for the May 2009 Atlantic Monthly where he said in part:
the reemergence of an American financial oligarchy is quite recent.
Just yesterday, I wrote about Andrew Jackson and the Second Bank of the United States and possible similarities to actions by Ben Bernnake.
Today, Johnson writes:
We are looking at a concentration of political power in the US banking system that we haven’t seen since the 1830s: Shades of Andrew Jackson vs. the Second Bank of the United States. We put up with a lot from our banking elite in this country, but historically we draw the line at financial power so concentrated it can confront the power of the President.Great analyst this Johnson.
Wenzel,
ReplyDeleteI don't know why you think you were the first to use oligarchs in reference to Americans. That term gets thrown around by left-wingers constantly and I remember hearing it back during the anti-Bush hysteria of "no blood for oil," such as in the phrase "oil oligarchs."
Hey Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI don't think Wenzel is claiming he invented the word, "oligarch", just they he wast the first to apply it to the, as he says, "finacial elite".
Do you have any evidence of anyone else using it before him with regard to the financial elite?