Only the Rich Can Play

How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age

By: David Wessel

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

In a Winners Take All meets This Town narrative, a New York Times best-selling author tells the story of the creation of a massive tax break, in which political and economic elites attend to the care and feeding of the super-rich, and inequality compounds.

David Wessel's incredible tale of how Washington works - and why the rich keep getting richer - starts when a Silicon Valley entrepreneur develops an idea intended as a way to help poor people that will save rich people money on their taxes. He organizes and pays for an effective lobbying effort that pushes his idea into law with little scrutiny or fine-tuning by congressional or Treasury tax experts - and few safeguards against abuse. With an unbeatable pair of high-profile sponsors, bumper-sticker simplicity, and deft political marketing, the Opportunity Zone became an unnoticed part of the 2017 Trump tax bill.

The gold rush followed immediately thereafter.

David Wessel follows the money to see who profited from this plan that was supposed to spur development of blighted areas and help people out of poverty: the Las Vegas strip, the Portland (Oregon) Ritz-Carlton, the Mall of America, and self-storage facilities - lucrative areas where the one percent can park money profitably and avoid capital gains taxes. And the best part: Unlike other provisions for eliminating capital gains taxes (inheritance, for example), you don't have to die to take advantage of this one.

Wessel provides vivid portraits of the proselytizers, political influencers, motivational speakers, consultants, real estate dealmakers, and individual money-seekers looking to take advantage of this 21st century bonanza. He looks at places for which Opportunity Zones were supposedly designed (Baltimore, for example) and how little money they've drawn. And he finds a couple of places (Erie, PA) where zones are actually doing what they were supposed to, a lesson on how a better designed program might have helped more left-behind places. But what Wessel reveals is the gritty reality: The dark underbelly of a system tilted in favor of the few, with the many left out in the cold.

©2021 David Wessel (P)2021 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

“A must-read for anyone who wants to really understand how an idea can in time become a law - with the help of a large budget, skilled lobbying, and the support of a few key members of Congress. I thought I knew a bit about how Washington works, but I learned an enormous amount from David Wessel’s very carefully researched and extremely well written book.” (David M. Rubenstein, cofounder and co-executive chairman of The Carlyle Group and author of How to Lead)

“In Only the Rich Can Play, David Wessel masterfully makes policy wonkery into a riveting story. A cautionary tale of good intentions gone bad, it is a must read, from Wall Street to Main Street.” (Arthur C. Brooks, professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and New York Times best-selling author)

“David Wessel is a Washington treasure, and anything he writes is a must-read as far as I’m concerned. In Only the Rich Can Play, Wessel marries the depth of his understanding of economics with his years of experience as a Washington reporter and his skill at storytelling. He traces the origins of the Opportunity Zone tax break from conception to birth and then shows how it actually works (or not) on the ground. This is both a great read and an important one because it shows those of us outside Washington how things really work there.” (Bryan Burrough, coauthor of Barbarians at the Gate and Forget the Alamo)

Great book shows government and private sector

excellent clear presentation of government and buisness the real estate world and the political world

Fascinating

I always liked Mr. Wessel’s tax writing in the Wall Street Journal as I found him to be fair and non-partisan. As a tax professional CPA I always find it interesting to see where a specific tax proposal comes from. In this excellent book we trace the origins of “opportunity zones” and an examination of the result of that legislation.