Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust - Softcover

"Darrell West has taken us on a thoughtful romp through the world of our new billionaire class... to understand and explain who they are and what they do. This is both an important book and a good read." - E. J. Dionne, Georgetown University, USA.

An estimated 40 percent of global assets are controlled by 1,645 men and women - the billionaires. Darrell M. West reveals what the other 99.9998% of us need to know. With rich anecdotes and personal narratives, West goes inside the world of the ultra wealthy. Meet billionaires such as Sheldon Adelson, Michael Bloomberg, David and Charles Koch, George Soros, Tom Steyer, and Donald Trump - as well as international billionaires from around the globe. The growing political engagement of this small supra-wealthy group raises important questions about influence, transparency, and government performance, and West lays bare the wealthification of politics, including: how billionaires can block appointments and legislation they don't like why the supra-wealthy moved into policy advocacy and referenda at the state level why billionaires run for office in more than a dozen countries around the world