[coldtea]

The activity I describe started well before the 21st century.

Remember "yuppies" - the boomer ideology that dialed up consumerism and financialization of all aspects of life. Reaganomics? The 1989, 2000, and 2008 crashes? The Great Outsourcing? Also in the eve of 21st century, boomers were merely from 40 to 54, so well represented in all positions of power and business. Clinton and Bush J were boomers. And Boomers got more entrenched as time went by and as they reached their 50s and 60+ for the later ones.

Same in Europe too, were e.g. people like the French 68'rs (the youth of the late 60s student revolts, roughly similar to the same era youth in the US later turned yuppies), have been running things since the early 80s in the most selfish, destructive, and narcissistic ways.

[fuzzfactor]

Agree completely.

These are the significant minority that prevailed both in the US and Europe.

There's always been plenty of them, and they have had some remarkable windfalls.

Who else was left with any chance of power to prevent your prominent, legendary old-timers from doing the damage they did?

Too many times they couldn't really be stopped from taking the reins any time they could, and steering things to their own advantage more so than anything else.

The great majority of everybody else was brought to the edge of ruin by all those financial disaters not of their own making.

Just like the decades-younger crowd today, it's the same type of greed playing out in the same way.