There is nothing new about all the badmouthing of money we witness so often in our culture and political environment. Not only do we find many of the literati railing against money, even while some of them eagerly urge their agents to negotiate hefty deals for paperback or movie renditions of their works – e.g., John Grisham, whose The Pelican Brief is a rich-bashing pulp novel if there ever was one. Most on the Left are leading while some on the right are joining the chorus of money-bashers.

Current and common anxieties have prompted many people to seek instant scapegoats, which has often lead to intensified denunciations of greed, avarice, the "me" generation, and the attempts of a few politicians during the past decades to contain government expenditures. The rich are supposedly most to blame for it all – reminiscent of how the Nazis and others in Europe and elsewhere managed to turn so many against Jews, many of whom have been closely associated with finance and banking.