In his brilliant and eerily prescient novel of social commentary, Bonfire of the Vanities, Thomas Wolfe characterizes financial superstars as “masters of the universe.” Wolfe pungently describes their sense of entitlement, their feeling that they have special rights and privileges allowing them to act as if they are above the laws and moral sensibilities that govern the rest of us. The world of the protagonist, an arrogant investment banker, unravels while he is on a clandestine liaison with his mistress: he accidentally takes a wrong exit off a New York City parkway and ends up in a dangerous Bronx neighborhood where his car accidently hits and seriously injures a black pedestrian, and, in their panicked state, he and his mistress leave the scene of the accident.

Just before the financial crisis that began in 2008, with its arcane financial instruments – derivatives, collateralized debt obligations, and credit default swaps – the “masters of the universe” were riding high. It was not until the economy began to falter that their intimate connection to the political system became clear. And just as these economic superstars showed a remarkable sense of entitlement, so, too, did their political confreres. This was not a failing confined to one side of the political aisle either: it was very much a bipartisan endeavor.