Age of oligarchy
Written by Newsday on January 17, 2025
WHEN the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the oligarchs swooped in.
Under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, Russian billionaires took hold. Mr Gorbachev’s high-minded perestroika gave way to crude blat; reform yielded to cronyism, kleptocracy and the hush-hush dealings of an old boys’ club. Think this USSR experience does not resemble the US? Think again.
Joe Biden, 82, will be remembered for many achievements alongside many missteps.
But the startling and explicit warning issued by the 46th US president on January 15 in his last Oval Office address makes plain that his departure marks the end of a certain kind of politics.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone,” Mr Biden said.
“Powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis to serve their own interest for power and profit.” Business and politics have long mixed.
However, the alignment of several factors renders the current, developing situation unique.
Come January 20, Donald Trump – cloaked with official absolute immunity – will oversee an extraordinary trifecta of power, with Republicans controlling the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
This will be augmented by the technological reach of the constellation of billionaires around him. To figures like Rupert Murdoch, add Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. Bill Gates and Sam Altman have already sent congratulations. “Old boys” are now “tech bros.”
All this as the existential peril faced by humanity from a range of sources is unprecedented, a fact shown by the wildfires in California and the recording of the hottest year on the planet in 2024.
Mr Biden’s departure marks the end not only of a chapter in US politics but also global history, with terrifying implications for the rest of the world. The most vulnerable countries of the Global South, and not the US, have the most to lose in this new world order.
There are lessons to be learned for a country like Trinidad and Tobago, where attempts at campaign finance reform remain dead in the water. This, despite the still-reverberating scandal of Clico, whose tainted money touched PNM and UNC alike.
Once a point of pride for the Prime Minister, Dr Rowley will leave office with campaign finance reform stalled and procurement changes tenuous. We have heard nothing of the plans of his successor, Stuart Young.
Perhaps this moment of global reformation resembles something once uttered by Basdeo Panday and memorably paraphrased by David Rudder’s The Ballad of Hulsie X: “We used to be a ragamuffin monarchy, but now we are a parasite oligarchy.”
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