Institutional Decay In "The Quiet Coup," Simon Johnson draws remarkable and shocking parallels between the United States and emerging market economies. The current monetary and debt crisis in the United States bears resemblance to similar crises that have occurred not in Western Europe but in places like Russia, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, and South Korea. Tracing the economic crisis to bad political decisions, and a culture of corruption, the author shows how the financial elite in the United States have got a stranglehold on the government. Financiers -- bankers -- have created what Johnson calls the "most advanced oligarchy" in the world (p. 2). The financiers in the United States have become so nefariously entwined with government that it seems nearly impossible -- or would be too messy and shocking -- to detangle the two. The situation has reached crisis level, and if nothing concrete is done to reduce the power of the banking elite, a new Great Depression will be practically...

His arguments are logical and supported by substantial references to events and situations. Yet the article is also written for a general audience and therefore presents the complexity of issues in a way that most readers can understand without having any kind of specialized background in economics, political science, or finance.
What Johnson does to make his argument highly effective is to explain how and why the oligarchy has gotten out of hand. The author traces the situation to the very values that are at the heart of the American consciousness and national identity. As Johnson puts it, financiers capitalized on basic marketing tactics to help the American public connect General Motors, for instance, with the heart and soul of America. The mystique of Wall Street is pervasive enough that it has even seduced academia: which helps…