"Chuck's book reveals not only the inner workings of the elaborate scheme to hide more than $20 trillion in wealth, it offers us a blueprint for reversing this obscene inequality."
Senator Bernie Sanders
“…An essential reformers’ handbook for navigating these dangerous times…”
For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These “agents of inequality” are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01%.
In this book, inequality expert Chuck Collins interviews the leading players and gives a unique insider account of how this industry is doing everything it can to create and entrench hereditary dynasties of wealth and power. He exposes the inner workings of these “agents of inequality,” showing how they deploy anonymous shell companies, family offices, offshore accounts, opaque trusts, and sham transactions to ensure the world’s richest pay next to no tax. He ends by outlining a robust set of policies that democratic nations can implement to shut down the Wealth Defense Industry for good.
This shocking exposé of the insidious machinery of inequality is essential reading for anyone wanting the inside story of our age of plutocratic plunder and stashed cash.
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and coedits Inequality.org. His previous books include Born on Third Base and Wealth and Our Commonwealth (with Bill Gates Sr.).
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Praise for The Wealth Hoarders
“It is no great surprise anymore that we are facing the greatest crisis in income and wealth inequality that we have seen since the 1920s. What is shocking is the sprawling system of corruption that the ultra-rich have designed in order to hoard their unimaginable wealth at the expense of everyone else. Chuck’s book reveals not only the inner workings of this elaborate scheme to hide more than $20 trillion in wealth, it offers us a blueprint for reversing this obscene inequality so we can take back our democracy and ensure that our government works for everybody―not just the billionaire class and wealthy campaign contributors.”
Senator Bernie Sanders
“Chuck’s painfully beautiful description of the Wealth Defense Industry lifts the veil to this intricate, maniacal ecosystem set in motion centuries ago and provides critical truths to help us all decolonize wealth.”
Edgar Villanueva, Decolonizing Wealth
“The Wealth Hoarders reveals that a whole parallel world exists in which the rich and powerful enjoy the freedom to avoid not just taxes but all kinds of laws they find inconvenient.”
Frederik Obermaier, The Panama Papers
“Chuck Collins shines a light on the powerful and pervasive ‘Wealth Defense Industry,’ showcasing what it is and how it is entrenched in the ‘ecosystems’ that perpetuate the growing and harmful inequality of our time.”
Abby Maxman, President and CEO Oxfam America
“Skillfully blends personal narrative with social scientific research to create unique insights into a world of privilege that is ordinarily out of sight and out of mind for the rest of us.”
Brooke Harrington, author, Capital without Borders
“This vital and expertly written book reveals the epic scale of theft occurring legally and in plain sight.”
Dr. Wanda Wyporska, The Equality Trust, UK
“This book, a primer to the secrets of the money river, is an essential reformers’ handbook for navigating these dangerous times now facing us – and future generations.”
Nicholas Shaxson, author, The Finance Curse and Treasure Islands
“Collins gives us a rare insider’s view of the hidden wealth of the 0.1% and how the Wealth Defense Industry maintains inequality.”
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Neighborhood Reinvestment Coalition of America
“Chuck Collins reveals how the superrich are different than the rest of us. While government takes out taxes before we get paid, the wealthiest avoid taxes with trusts, evade taxes with help from tax haven governments and escape the IRS because Congress hobbles tax law enforcement. Collins, who rejected the privilege of his birth, explains in plain English how wealth hoarding works and shows how we can stop this costly corruption.”
David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch
“Once again, Chuck Collins proves that building a better world is well within our reach. There is more than enough money to fund the societal transformation needed for equity, well-being, and a safe climate. It’s just hiding in the wrong places. With The Wealth Hoarders, we now know where to look.”
May Boeve, Executive Director, 350.org
“Chuck Collins’ Wealth Hoarders provides an invaluable perspective on the Architecture of Inequality. Through personal insights and thoughtful research he documents the extraordinary sums of hidden money in financial secrecy jurisdictions. Most importantly, he sets forth a realistic blueprint for essential reforms that can inform our strategies and actions as we work towards real economic justice and security.”
Conrad Martin, Executive Director, Fund for Constitutional Government.
“We won’t be able to effectively tax billionaires if they are hiding trillions in dynasty trusts. This useful book explains how to shut down the hidden wealth system in order to build a fairer tax system.”
Frank Clemente, executive director, Americans for Tax Fairness
“Join inequality expert Chuck Collins in his riveting investigation of the secret world of the “Wealth Hoarders,” who are paid by the world’s richest people to protect private wealth. For years, I have used Collins’ books to teach my students about the hidden world of untouchable wealth, because nobody else writes so electrically and entertainingly about global plutocracy. In this book, Collins tracks down trillions of dollars that can be used to replenish our “common wealth” and solve our greatest justice crises.”
Charles Derber, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, author of Moving Beyond Fear and Glorious Causes.
“We can’t have a fair tax system while millionaires and billionaires are hiding trillions of wealth in the shadows. This book is essential to fixing our broken tax system.”
Erica Payne, cofounder and president, Patriotic Millionaires and author of Tax the Rich
The New York Times: Who Are America’s Billionaires, Anyway?
October 28, 2021: A long-form piece with comments from Chuck about who the billionaires are and how they got their fortunes.
June 1, 2021: This in-depth interview with Chuck Collins offers an insider’s account of the ‘wealth defense industry’ and the inequality it perpetuates.
The Hill: Pandora Papers: Stop the enablers that help billionaires dodge taxes
October 8, 2021: Chuck’s op-ed in The Hill explains the Pandora Papers revelations and how the super-wealthy play shell games with their tax obligations.
New York Post: The shocking ways billionaires, highly profitable companies hide their money
March 27, 2021: In this rave review, Larry Getlen lays out the most shocking findings in Chuck’s new book, The Wealth Hoarders
CNN Business: The reason it’s so easy for wealthy Americans to hide their money — and how to stop it
October 15, 2021: Americans are deploying the same tools described in the Pandora Papers to avoid paying taxes: shell companies, complex trusts and bank accounts in tax havens.
CBS Moneywatch: Behind the nation’s “grotesque” income inequality: An army of wealth-hiding experts
March 29, 2021: CBS’s Aimee Picchi interviews Chuck about the widening gulf between the nation’s richest citizens and everyone else, fueled by an army of experts.
April 1, 2021: When oligarchs and ultra-wealthy around the world game the system to hide riches in Boston and other cities, everyone else pays.
The Nation: How Tax Haven States Enable Billionaires to Hide Trillions
April 1, 2021: The US has now become the global center for money hiding and illicit wealth storage.
March 25, 2021: Chuck is interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh about the new report, “A Year of Billionaire Pandemic Gains,” on Democracy Now
Rising Up with Sonali: The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions
April 1, 2021: KPFK Pacifca Radio’s Sonali Kolhatkar interviews Chuck about his new book and the crisis of inequality in the United States now.
NPR: How COVID-19 Became A ‘Tremendous Windfall’ For The Ultra Rich
December 2020: Terry Gross interviews Chuck on billionaire wealth windfalls and pandemic profiteers on NPR’s Fresh Air.
The Progressive: Tax Wealth to Fix the Nation’s Woes
March 22, 2021: Members of the billionaire class have used their clout to rig the economy in their favor.
The Wealth Hoarders by Chuck Collins – Phoenix Books via Zoom
April 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm (ET)
Phoenix Books welcomes inequality expert and IPS Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, Chuck Collins, for a virtual book discussion about his newly released “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.”
For decades, a secret army of tax attorneys, accountants and wealth managers has been developing into the shadowy Wealth Defense Industry. These ‘agents of inequality’ are paid millions to hide trillions for the richest 0.01%.
This is a ticketed event that includes a signed book. REGISTER HERE!
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About Chuck Collins and The Wealth Hoarders
For media inquires, contact Bob Keener at bobk@ips-dc.org or 617-610-6766.
Bio:
Chuck Collins is the Director the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His new book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, is about the wealth hiding industry (Polity 2021).
He is author of a number of popular books about economic inequality, philanthropy, class, and advantage. Two well known previous books include: Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good (Chelsea Green) and, with Bill Gates Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes (Beacon Press). He was featured in an interview in Sun Magazine and this interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
He is an expert on U.S. inequality and the racial wealth divide and author of numerous reports and several other books, including Is Inequality in America Irreversible?, with Mary Wright, of The Moral Measure of the Economy, a book about Christian ethics and economic life.
He is a founding board member of the Patriotic Millionaires. In 1995, he co-founded United for a Fair Economy (UFE) to raise the profile of the inequality issue and support popular education and organizing efforts to address inequality. He was Executive Director of UFE from 1995-2001 and Program Director until 2005.
Collins has a B.A. in history and economics from Hampshire College and a Masters in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University.
For media inquires, contact Bob Keener at bobk@ips-dc.org or 617-610-6766. For public speaking inquiries, contact Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.
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