Top CEOs, Financialization and the Creation of the Super-Rich Economy’

This piece takes a close look at top CEOs in the UK. CEOs are not only amongst the ranks of today’s super-rich, they have played a vital part in the evolution of an economic system which supports the super-rich generally. As the paper argues, they have done this in two key ways: first, by promoting a set of financialized free-market ideas about managing the economy to news media and policy-makers, and; second, by managing large companies as financial assets for the benefit of financiers and the super-rich. In both ways, they have encouraged financialization and the funnelling of capital away from the real economy and ordinary employees, and upwards towards the super-rich. The paper is based on 30 interviews with top UK business leaders, including 20 FTSE 100 CEOs, as well as other demographic and qualitative data.