• San Francisco Chronicle, Tuesday, December 20, 2011 11 AM

Ostentatious wealth was supposed to have ended. For a while, the very rich were keeping their Maybachs in mothballs, diamonds in drawers. But the 1% are back in black and spending a lot of money on toys. Auctions are breaking records again. A British businessman paid $34,400 for chocolate and Champagne caviar topped with a 2-carat diamond, according to the Daily Mail.

The 2008 financial crisis sparked popular anger about wealth and pushed the debate on income inequality into the spotlight. But as we continue our drift from federalism to feudalism, the mega rich are back to bling bigtime. 

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