Casey Michel

That is a society in which democracy is constantly and consistently at risk.

and that of course necessitates calls for highlights that much more than need to have a kind of value-based approach it has to be about any society has to be about more than just what you are making and what you're using that money for in the political system

what is the impact when such a small number of people control so much wealth What is the domino effect politically, geopolitically, ethically, financially? These are some of the things that Casey Michelle, the author of United States of Oligarchy, unpacks in his new book and what we discuss together on today's episode of Values and Interests.

I hope you enjoy the conversation and let's get right into it.

Casey Michelle, welcome to the Values and Interests podcast here at Carnegie Council.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks so much, Kevin.

Well, sure.

So we have sort of certain, I would argue, wealthy individuals that have a vested interest in making sure this information is not anywhere in a federal database.

OK, so let's just get one more voice in here.

This is Casey Michelle, who is author of the recent book, The United States of Oligarchy.

And Casey says the scope of how he thinks that this undoing of the rule is going to damage the United States can be seen in what he says the Trump administration has already done to undo completed work.

To have the administration announce that it is not only going to stop enforcing these regulations, but actually destroy all of the data that they had already collected on something like 15 million companies in the United States was devastating.

This is going to accelerate all of the trends we've already seen over the last few years, not only in terms of accelerating wealth inequality writ large in the United States, but accelerating the reality that American politics, especially federal politics in Washington, seem open and available only for that wealthiest class of donors, those that can take advantage of these kind of financial secrecy tools, those that have the wealth and the resources to use to give to whichever politician

they want.

So that's Casey Michelle, author of The United States of Oligarchy.

Tonight, we are joined by Casey Mischel and Matt Duss to discuss Casey's newest novel, United States of Oligarchy, How America's Wealthiest Ally with Dictators Weaken the US and Destroy Democracy, which is a staggering examination of how America's wealthiest infiltrated the government and allied with dictators, transforming the US from democracy to oligarchy.

Casey Michelle is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy program with the Human Rights Foundation.

He is the author of American Kleptocracy and Foreign Agents.

His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets.