I came across this term while catching up on my 3QD posts. Klepto capitalism makes a lot of sense and it describes corporate America very well. How can a company pay its workers $50,000 per annum and give its top execs millions, if not billions, of dollars each year? I think that the worst culprits are in the financial sector, especially in merchant banks and investment banks, with their bloated end-of-year bonuses often going into millions. Even with the economic downturn, these ultra-rich are getting richer.
Klepto Capitalism (n.) — an economic system where publicly traded corporations are run not to produce value for shareholders but to provide obscene amounts of wealth for CEOs and top executives.
What we have in the United States is no longer capitalism but klepto-capitalism: a system where publicly traded corporations are run not to produce value for shareholders but to provide loot for a new class of corporate mega-thieves.
