Evan Osnos:

In 2012, super PACs spent a billion dollars; seventy-three per cent of the money came from a hundred people.

David Bromwich:

Between the 1970s and the early 2000s, when stock options and other compensation packages became common, the average chief executive went from being paid 20 times as much as the median employee to being paid 400 times as much.

David Leonhardt:

The typical American family makes less than the typical family did 15 years ago, a statement that hadn't previously been true since the Great Depression. The political turmoil isn't likely to end until the economic reality changes.

Evan Osnos:

When I lived in Beijing, the Chinese often complained that their government was riddled with corruption, and they asked me if America had similar problems. I usually replied that though our government has its crooks, the naked exchange of favors for money is minimized by the rule of law and a free press. Now I'm not so sure.

Francis Fukuyama:

The depressing bottom line is that given how self-reinforcing the country's political malaise is, and how unlikely the prospects for constructive incremental reform are, the decay of American politics will probably continue until some external shock comes along to catalyze a true reform coalition and galvanize it into action.