The outgoing president was right, in his farewell address, to warn of the dangers posed by the billionaires around the table

Aristocrats are “the most difficult Animals to manage, of anything in the whole Theory and practice of Government. They will not suffer themselves to be governed,” John Adams warned, writing after his presidency. Banning titles was insufficient; a few would still be distinguished by birth or, especially, wealth. The problem was not just their ability to buy political favours but the grip that their money had on people’s minds.

Economic and political power entwine everywhere. Fear of the rich’s outsized influence has existed throughout US history. Yet at times the relationship becomes especially stark and threatening. On Wednesday, Joe Biden evoked the 19th-century Gilded Age and the robber barons – who crushed competitors, exploited workers, bought judges and politicians, and flaunted wealth – in his warning against oligarchs.