Finance & economics | The makers and the takers

Our crony-capitalism index offers a window into Russia’s billionaire wealth

Rich folk in autocratic countries remain vulnerable to the whims of dictators

|4 min read

ALTHOUGH BILLIONAIRES have been getting a bad rap for years, the sanctions levied at Russian oligarchs have intensified scrutiny on the origins of tycoons’ wealth. On March 1st President Joe Biden announced that his government was setting up a “klepto capture” task force to “go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs”.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The makers and the takers”

The Stalinisation of Russia

From the March 12th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
illustration of a map of Africa with a large pixelated cursor pointing at Zambia, which is highlighted in yellow

Want to be a good explorer? Study economics

The battle to reduce risk has shaped centuries of ventures

Illustration of a hand pushing a jagged black arrow upward against a red background. The Jane Street logo appears to be rolling down the arrow in the opposite direction.

Jane Street is chucked out of India. Other firms should be nervous

Around the world, marketmakers now face extra scrutiny


A man looks at an advertisement for the Nippon Individual Savings Account (NISA) displayed at a branch of Nomura Securities Co., a unit of Nomura Holdings Inc., in the Kichijoji area of Tokyo, Japan.

Japan has been hit by investing fever

Will old folk catch the bug?


Don’t invest through the rearview mirror

Markets are supposed to look forward; plenty of investors look back instead

Trump’s trade deals try a creative way to hobble China

To appease the world’s biggest market, countries must anger the world’s biggest trader

The great dealmaker is conspicuously short of trade deals

Donald Trump issues threats—and grants deadline extensions