The recent focus on the one percent, a group that has come to be associated with wealth and power, obscures where the real source of capital and power lies today. Seventy seven per cent of discretionary spending--the engine that drives the American economy--comes from just 46 percent of the population. This largely undetected group is responsible for those parts of the American economy that are thriving despite the toughest conditions in living memory. We call them NEOs, short for the New Economic Order, as their spending adds up to an economy within an economy wherever they are. So far, they have remained undetected by businesses and government. If you're in business, you need to know who they are and what they really value. But more importantly, their discovery points to blueprint for building a sustainable economic engine, capable of powering America out of its current crisis and through the next century. The NEO Economy exists, but its potential has barely been tapped.

It is often asserted that the ruling elite in Western capitalist economies now consists of liberal intellectuals and their media sympathisers. By contrast this book looks at the real elite in Australian and New Zealand society and shows that there is still a ruling class based upon economic dominance. From an analysis of corporate and public records, interviews, and other primary and secondary data, it develops a picture of networks of power that are changing but are as real as any network in the past.