From the Guardian's archives -- Simon Schama on the corrupt Bush administration.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The dead and the guilty: "So we should not wonder at the aversion to debate, for the United States Inc is currently being run by an oligarchy, conducting its affairs with a plutocratic effrontery which in comparison makes the age of the robber barons in the late 19th century seem a model of capitalist rectitude. The dominant managerial style of the oligarchy is golf club chumminess; its messages exchanged along with hot stock tips by the mutual scratching and slapping of backs.

The corporations from which the government draws much of its personnel, including its chief executive, and which, on taking office boasted of its business savoir-faire, have not, in truth, produced very much, though some of them like Dick Cheney's Halliburton, now under investigation by the securities and exchange commission for creative accounting practices, have been past masters at converting political connections into corporate advantage and both into personal wealth. "