The Rich and Super-rich

The Rich and Super-rich by Lundberg, Ferdinand. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780553100280.

Decades ago, a bombshell of a book appeared which told the story of the lords of wealth & their glittering clans. It was called Americas Sixty Families. It rocked the nation & became a classic. Lundberg showed how America was ruled by a plutocracy of inherited wealth, even under the New Deal. At the time he could only provide a sampling of the economic & political patterns of those families, which, for one reason or another, had come under public scrutiny. In addition to the 60 Families he dealt with in depth he was able to outline the probable holdings of a few hundred other families. Where are they today - those 60 Families? What ravages of time, death & taxes worked on the mighty fortunes of yesteryear? Is the Welfare State robbing them of the opulence they knew in the good old days?...Lundberg shows that there are 200,000 very wealthy individuals in the USA. Most of them are of some 500 super-millionaire families. Examples are 250 Du Ponts, 73 Rockefellers. Some 61% of the 200,000 inherited their wealth. These families are far wealthier than ever before...These families have all the old levers of power & pelf plus a host of new ones created for them during the intervening decades by the politicians, lawyers & judges who serve them.--dustjacket