The rich have organized themselves into a powerful lobby.

The rich have organized themselves into a powerful lobby.   The wealthiest Americans like to imagine the current economic system as a meritocracy, where their status is the inevitable result of hard work and virtue. This week, we talk to two experts about how, in fact, the rich have rigged the tax code and economic policy to secure the economic order and prevent it from ever changing.  Isaac Martin Professor Isaac Martin has studied one particular economic trend in American history and tells us about that, and the topic of his book “The Rich People’s Movements.” Erica Payne In 2010, Erica Payne organized some of the richest Americans to demand higher taxes on millionaires like themselves.  Her recent book offers an insider’s view of how the wealthy have rigged the tax code in their favor and offers a blueprint to unrig it. Jim Hightower   Supreme Thieves in Robes of “Justice”   As we know, “government ethics” can be a very slippery concept.   That’s why We The People have insisted that every public official – from congress critters to dog catchers – swear to abide by some minimum standard of proper behavior. Not that all will honor it, but a code of ethics provides a measure of legal action against those who are grabbers and grifters. Bill Press "The Constitution is Trash." with Elie Mystal   Elie Mystal is The Nation Magazine’s Justice Correspondent. He's a frequent guest on MSNBC commenting on the intersection between the legal and the political. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he gave up Big Law to fight for justice.   If you'd like to hear the entire episode, visit BillPressPods.com.