Robber Barons

Well worth a read:

J. Bradford DeLong

University of California at Berkeley, and NBER

first draft October 13, 1997; second draft January 1, 1998

I. Introduction

"Robber Barons": that was what U.S. political and economic commentator Matthew Josephson (1934) called the economic princes of his own day. Today we call them "billionaires." Our capitalist economy--any capitalist economy--throws up such enormous concentrations of wealth: those lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, driven and smart enough to see particular economic opportunities and seize them, foresighted enough to have gathered a large share of the equity of a highly-profitable enterprise into their hands, and well-connected enough to fend off political attempts to curb their wealth (or well-connected enough to make political favors the foundation of their wealth).

Matthew Joshttp://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/eliten/Robber%20Barons.htm