The Haves and Have-Yachts

A timely and provocative collection of essays exploring American oligarchy and the culture of excess, providing a wry, unfiltered look at how the ultrarich shape – and sometimes warp – our social and political landscape. *** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *** Chosen as a book of the year by the Financial Times, The Times and Sunday Times, and Waterstones. ‘An eye-opening account of superyachts, the billionaires who buy them, and what it all means for the rest of us … [a] droll and timely analysis of extreme wealth’ – ​Guardian Who are America's oligarchs? What do they want? How do they operate? Is there anything that can be done to contain their power? The ultrarich hold more of America’s wealth than they did in the heyday of the Carnegies and Rockefellers. In this incisive and provocative book, Evan Osnos offers an unforgettable portrait of the tactics and obsessions driving this new Gilded Age, in which superyachts, luxury bunkers, elite tax dodges and a torrent of political donations bespeak staggering disparities of wealth and power. With deft storytelling and meticulous reporting, Osnos explores the indulgences, incentives and psychological distortions that define our time. He delves into the unprecedented influence Silicon Valley and Wall Street have on government, drawing on in-depth interviews with Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaires. He also exposes the hidden world of the ultrarich in all its outrageous, fabulous, ridiculous detail: a private wealth manager who broke with members of an American dynasty and spilled their secrets; the pop stars who perform at lavish parties for thirteen-year-olds; the status anxieties that spill out of marinas in Monaco and Palm Beach like real-world episodes of Succession and The White Lotus. Originally published in the New…