Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2023

Wall Street’s Assault on Democracy

How Financial Markets Exacerbate Inequalities

Authors:

  • Offers a thought-provoking take on the inequalities in the modern capitalist system

  • Provides concrete solutions for democratizing financial markets and reintroducing morals and ethics

  • Exposes the incredible disconnect between financial markets and society

  • 465 Accesses

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Table of contents (34 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvi
  2. Introduction: Wall Street’s Denial

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 1-1
  3. The Disconnect with the Real Economy

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 13-21
  4. An Unsustainable Inequality

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 23-33
  5. Financial Accountability

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 35-41
  6. Investors Look for Valuable Assets

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 53-63
  7. The Operators in Search of Liquidity

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 65-68
  8. Is Financial Innovation Making Financial?

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 127-143
  9. Capital Markets, Politics, and Policies

    • Georges Ugeux
    Pages 165-173

About this book

On November 24, 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, the Dow Jones Index surpassed 30,000 points for the first time ever. This historic moment exposed the incredible disconnect between financial markets and society.

The stock market’s one hundred percent rebound was triggered by a massive injection of capital by the US Federal Reserve and by fiscal stimulus measures that reached $16 trillion globally in only a year. It was the taxpayer who came to the aid of the shareholders. This imbalance between low- and high-income individuals has become unbearable and calls into question the mechanisms that allow such an abuse of financial power to exist. This abuse has allowed populism to flourish, in a world where humanism should prevail.

This book invites the reader to understand how such a financial drift of capitalism was even possible and proposes reforms to correct the system. Written by the former Group Executive Vice President for International & Research at the New York Stock Exchange, this volume provides concrete solutions for democratizing financial markets and reintroducing the morals and ethics that these markets and its leaders are so sorely lacking.

Ugeux argues that the purpose of such reforms is to reduce the inequalities which are plaguing our democracies. Citizens are losing hope that equity exists in the system and it has become clear, as fundamental liberties like right voting rights are being threatened – that the problem lies much deeper. Ugeux insists that a change of perspective and a redefinition of societal goals is essential: social and solidarity capitalism is possible only if our leaders listen to the expectations of their citizens.

While it is supported by research and facts, this book includes elements of opinion essays with an educational objective. It aims to educate readers who want to better understand these complex issues, without having to be specialists.

Keywords

  • Capital markets
  • inequality
  • shareholder supremacy
  • social capitalism
  • central banking
  • sovereign debt
  • Wall Street
  • democracy
  • corporate greed

Authors and Affiliations

  • Rye, USA

    Georges Ugeux

About the author

Georges Ugeux is the Chairman & CEO of Galileo Global Advisors LLC, a firm he founded in 2003 to offer CEOs, Boards of Directors and governments independent advice on international business development, restructuring, compliance, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Galileo, Mr. Ugeux was the Group Executive Vice President, International & Research, at the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr. Ugeux is a Lecturer in Law at Columbia University School of Law, where he teaches the seminar “International Banking and Finance: the Challenges” and leads a reading group on Brexit. He is a frequent visiting professor at La Sorbonne University Paris I and has guest lectured at the Catholic University of Louvain, from which he holds a Doctorate in Law and is Licentiate in Economics, and the College of Europe in Bruges.

Mr. Ugeux is a widely sought-after public speaker and author in the United States and in French-speaking communities around the world. As an author, Mr. Ugeux has published a number of non-fiction works in English, French, Flemish, and Chinese.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access