How Saudi Arabia Captured the U.S. Economy Through American Oligarchs

Infatuation with Saudi money—and tyranny—reveals what many oligarchs envision for America’s future.

Among the oligarchs at a Saudi-backed investment forum in Miami last year. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Casey Michel is an author, journalist, and non-resident senior fellow on corruption at the Center for International Policy. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, Foreign Agents, and United States of Oligarchy, out now from St. Martin’s Press and from which this essay is adapted. He writes regularly for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and other outlets on the intersection of corruption and democracy.

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