Financial Markets and the Growth of Plutonomies

Fears that rising income inequality and concentration in political power are being exacerbated by financial markets finds support in an internal memo leaked out of CITI group that caricatures the United States, United Kingdom and Canada as plutonomies. The top 1% in these and other countries seem to be acculturated to take on more risk via increasingly complex financial assets that obviate individual risk exposure. The unavoidable systemic risk, however, poses significant problems for those at the bottom who operate on the edge of a precipice. Value free, market efficiency solutions will prove inadequate to address the underlying market failures because they are incapable of incorporating increasingly complex interdependencies, connected social tensions and need-based behavior.