The Basics

How can billionaires try to shape public policy?

Our video explains the legal mechanisms: Electioneering, lobbying and advocacy, opinion shaping and philanthropy.
With corruption, influence becomes illegal.
Our glossary explains the key terms.

31 March 2020 - Karl Evers-Hillstrom

Newspapers are asking for government assistance as the ailing industry struggles to overcome plummet [...]

30 March 2020 - Anna Massoglia and Ilma Hasan

The Trump administration designated the firearms industry as essential "critical infrastructure [...]

27 March 2020 - Anna Massoglia and Tatyana Monnay

Fueled by “dark money,” cash-flush liberal groups with ties to the Democratic Party are mobilizing t [...]

27 March 2020 - Karl Evers-Hillstrom

The Campaign Legal Center is asking ethics officials to investigate campaign spending by Rep. Steven [...]

26 March 2020 - Karl Evers-Hillstrom

Powerful companies and trade groups asked for over $2.7 trillion in government assistance. The coron [...]

1 April 2020

With restaurants and bars across the country closed or limited to takeout service, the industry has [...]

31 March 2020

There are signs that an already crippled economy may get even worse. Investment bank Goldman Sachs e [...]

31 March 2020

New York City mayor and New York state Attorney General say they'll investigate if the firing w [...]

31 March 2020

"This is the fastest move in history from an all-time high to a bear market," one finance [...]

31 March 2020

Companies with 500 or fewer workers that have been hurt by the pandemic are eligible for loans to co [...]

1 April 2020 - Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Ana Swanson

The Defense Production Act has been invoked hundreds of thousands of times in the Trump years. But w [...]

31 March 2020 - Noam Scheiber and Kate Conger

The two companies are the latest targets of labor action by groups fearing virus exposure on the job [...]

31 March 2020 - Jim Tankersley and Emily Cochrane

A proposal to retroactively lift a limit on state and local tax deductions would largely funnel mone [...]

30 March 2020 - Sapna Maheshwari and Michael Corkery

Furloughs by Macy’s and Gap will affect the majority of their work forces, and show how the pandemic [...]

30 March 2020 - Matthew Goldstein and Mary Williams Walsh

Corporations are saving cash, cutting costs and refinancing debt to manage the economic fallout of t [...]