How bad could it get? America’s ugly election

Who are America’s financial elite

backing in 2020?

Campaign finance

Wall Street’s

money

Follow the money

United States, total donations of selected

individuals to political campaigns,

$m, log scale

*To August   †Excludes

donations to own campaign

Source: Federal

Election Commission

100

10

1

0.1

0.01

0.001

2015-16

2019-20*

100

10

1

0.1

0.01

0.001

Cliff Asness

David Elliot Shaw

George

Soros

Jim Simons

Michael

Bloomberg

Paul Singer

Schwarzman

Robert

Mercer

Cliff Asness

David Elliot Shaw

George

Soros

Jim Simons

Michael

Bloomberg†

Paul Singer

Schwarzman

Robert

Mercer

0

Share given to

Republicans, 2016, %

↘

Lower donations in 2020

R

unning a business

is hard in many

parts of the world. So the World Bank

gives governments an incentive to make it

easier, and ranks them according to where

the burden of regulation is lightest. This

year, though, its Doing Business (

db

) index

has itself been ensnared in procedural 

problems. On August 27th the Bank said

that publication of the next set of rankings

would be delayed. It comes in a year when,

The Economist

understands, China was go-

ing to be ranked one of the biggest improv-

ers. On that the Bank had no comment. 

Some cheered the postponement be-

cause they think the index is counterpro-

ductive, specious, or both. Many critics

worry that it encourages 

pr

-attentive tech-

nocrats and politicians to slash regulations

excessively and that it ignores how rules

are applied in practice. A study in 2015

found “almost zero correlation” between

the 

db

results and what businesses say

when directly surveyed by the World Bank.