Oligarchy in the USA

Slate Money

Slate Podcasts

Investing, Business

4.3 • 988 Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week: In his farewell address, President Biden warns of a looming oligarchy in America. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers debate whether Biden is right, or if America is already an oligarchy of sorts. Then, the FDA is suing John Deere. The hosts discuss the idea of “the right to repair” and why our ability to repair the things we buy just isn’t what it used to be. And finally, Nate Anderson has announced that he’s closing Hindenburg. Are activist short sellers a dying breed? In the Slate Plus episode: An MBA Ain’t What It Used To Be Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Slate Money, your guide to the business and finance news of last week,
0:19.4	which was a week in which TikTok existed.
0:21.6	I am Felix Salmon of Axios.
0:24.6	I'm here with Emily Peck of Axios.
0:26.6	Hello, hello.
0:27.6	I'm here with Elizabeth Spires, who writes to New York Times and does all minor of other stuff.
0:31.6	Hello?
0:32.6	We are not going to talk about TikTok this week because we have no idea what's happening on Sunday.
0:38.6	This show, as you know, is coming out on Saturday, but probably next week we will.
0:43.0	So instead we're going to talk about this idea of Joe Biden's, as articulated in his farewell address,
0:50.3	that America is becoming an oligarchy.
0:53.3	We're going to ask whether it's coming an oligarchy,
0:55.9	whether it's been an oligarchy for decades. We're going to talk about the right to repair
0:59.9	and whether anyone ever repairs anything anymore. We are going to talk about short selling
1:05.7	and whether that's a thing anymore. Everything's going away, people. We have a Slate Clust segment on even demand for Harvard MBAs.
1:14.7	It seems to be going away.
1:16.3	It is a wistful thing as the Biden administration disappears into the review mirror.
1:21.6	Everything else is going away as well.
1:23.2	But we will talk about it all.
1:25.5	Coming up on Slate.
1:46.3	Okay, so I want to do a quick straw poll just so I know where we are as of this new era that we have just begun.
1:52.0	Emily Peck, do you think that the United States of America is an oligarchy today?
	...

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