The Haves and HaveYachts, Evan Osnos
The Haves and HaveYachts, Evan Osnos
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The Haves and Have-Yachts
Field Notes from the Frontier of American Excess (t)

Bestseller

Author: Evan Osnos

Narrator: Evan Osnos

Unabridged: 10 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/03/2025


Synopsis

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and The Times (London)

From National Book Award–winning author Evan Osnos comes a “sharp…charming…regrettably timely” (The Washington Post) collection of essays exploring American oligarchy, billionaire culture, and the new Gilded Age, offering a wry, unfiltered look at how the ultrarich shape—and sometimes warp—our social and political landscape.

The one percent now hold more of America’s wealth than they did in the heyday of the Carnegies and Rockefellers. In this incisive work of reportage, Osnos paints an unforgettable portrait of the tactics and obsessions that define today’s elite class: superyachts, luxury bunkers, tax dodges, and a torrent of political donations that bespeak staggering disparities of wealth and power.

With deft storytelling and meticulous reporting, this is a book about the indulgences, incentives, and psychological distortions that define our economic age. In each essay, Osnos lifts the curtain on a world rarely seen, from the outrageous to the surreal: a private wealth manager betraying an American dynasty; pop stars performing at lavish parties for children; status anxiety spilling from marinas in Monaco and Palm Beach like real-world episodes of Succession or The White Lotus.

Readers will meet disgraced moguls in a “white-collar support group,” unravel the largest Ponzi scheme in Hollywood history, and explore the global ambitions of tech tycoons, including Mark Zuckerberg. A celebrated political reporter, Osnos documents the unprecedented influence Silicon Valley and Wall Street now have on Washington—and the explosive backlash this influence provokes.

Originally published in The New Yorker, these essays have been revised and expanded to deliver an “eye-opening account” (The Guardian) of raw ambition, unimaginable fortune, and the rise of America’s modern oligarchy. Osnos’s essays are a wake-up call—a case against complacency in the face of unchecked excess, as the choices of the ultrarich ripple through our lives. Entertaining, unsettling, and eye-opening, The Haves and the Have-Yachts couldn’t be more relevant to today’s world.

About Evan Osnos

Evan Osnos has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2008. His most recent book, Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury, was a New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, which won the National Book Award. Previously, he was a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, where he shared two Pulitzer Prizes. He lives with his wife and children near Washington, DC.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sharon on September 10, 2025

Before I started listening toThe Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich, I started reading The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires which provides insight into countries who offer citizenship for a price (typically about $1 million). According to the book, some of the ultra-......more

Goodreads review by Miranda on June 02, 2025

I will begin by saying that every individual essay in here is interesting, well-conceived, and well-executed. Osnos is a professional journalist and his writing shows it. I am not sad that I read any of these essays and if you have interest in the subject matter, I think you will get a lot out of th......more

Goodreads review by Phil on July 25, 2025

Evan Osnos’s The Haves and Have-Yachts is one of the most entertaining and quietly infuriating books I’ve read this year. From yacht IMAX theaters to tax loopholes big enough to dock a superyacht in…with a smart, clear-eyed account of how wealth concentration shapes power, culture, and even personal......more

Goodreads review by Steve on June 29, 2025

As with many collections of articles, this is pretty hit and miss. I read it all, truly enjoyed the yachting and private concerts articles, truly got chills on the Ponzi scheme, and was so so on the rest. It’s worth the read, but no points deducted for skipping an article that doesn’t grab you.......more

Goodreads review by Stevie on September 12, 2025

Hodge-Podge Articles | Partisan Journalism | Unorganized writing I didn't realize what this book was before I bought it - and this review mostly reflects that my expectations didn't match the reality of the book I was reading. This book is essentially a collection of articles the author had already w......more