Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

Each of them is one in a million. They number six thousand on a planet of six billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, world religions, and, from the shadows, the world's most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping our history.

Today's superclass has achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and power. They have globalized more rapidly than any other group. But has their influence fed the growing economic inequality that divides the world? What was their role in the global financial crisis of 2008?

Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews and extensive original reporting, Superclass takes us from the corporate boardrooms of America's most powerful companies to dinner meetings with Russia's most notorious oligarch, from the secretive meetings of the Trilateral Commission and the Bohemian Grove to China's upstart Boao Forum for Asia. This is the first in-depth examination of the connections among the global communities of leaders who are altering our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.

"Neither hand-wringing nor worshipful, this book delivers an unsettling account of what the immense and growing power of this superclass bodes for the future." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)