The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich

A collection of essays by National Book Award–winning author Evan Osnos exploring American oligarchy, billionaire culture, and the new Gilded Age. The one percent now hold more of America's wealth than during the era of the Carnegies and Rockefellers. Osnos examines the tactics and obsessions of today's elite class: superyachts, luxury bunkers, tax dodges, and political donations that reflect vast disparities of wealth and power. Through reported essays, he documents the indulgences, incentives, and psychological patterns that characterize the current economic age. Topics include a private wealth manager's betrayal of an American dynasty, pop stars performing at lavish children's parties, status anxiety in Monaco and Palm Beach, disgraced moguls in support groups, Hollywood's largest Ponzi scheme, and the ambitions of tech tycoons including Mark Zuckerberg. Osnos also documents the unprecedented influence of Silicon Valley and Wall Street on Washington and the backlash it provokes. Originally published in The New Yorker, these essays have been revised and expanded to provide an account of raw ambition, unimaginable fortune, and the rise of America's modern oligarchy.