Are you sure that's all actually true? Not the Florida history part, that I believe (I haven't read the book and it's out of print), but the broad generalization across our history and now?

Did you read the link I posted under "entrepreneurs?"

You can read about the current Forbes 400 here, and browse the list.

If you subtract those making money from the sort of thing you consider "manipulation" what do you get? (For now I'll grant your premise for the sake of argument.)

I counted up the list members under "real estate," "finance," "investments," and for the hell of it, "logistics" because I'm not quite sure where that falls. Those are the stock buyers, real estate speculators, hedge funders, and the rest. I tallied 134. That's only about a third of the total.

You know my solution for the problem you raise: separation of economics and state, for the same reasons as you have separation of church and state. The Founders were well aware of what happens when churches and governments combined. I don't know why they didn't concern themselves with the merging of state power and business - it's not like state-chartered corporations with royally-licensed monopolies were unknown at the time.

Despite the evidence of history and the evidence of their own eyes (G.E. comes to mind), "progressives" are still convinced that massive government power over the economy will result in tame, obedient, incorruptible businesses in the dedicated service of The People.