Simon Johnson: The Quiet Coup – The Atlantic
The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we re running out of time.
This is the 2009 article that Luke Gromen refers to. I wish I had paid more attention to it at the time.