The Field Guide to
American Corruption
A comprehensive encyclopedia of how money buys power in the United States — from the lobbying firms on K Street to the courtrooms where judges are elected, the prisons run for profit, and the regulators captured by the industries they oversee.
Every number cited in this guide is sourced from federal databases, court filings, Senate disclosures, and peer-reviewed research. This is not opinion. This is the ledger.
Ten Chapters
Each chapter covers a distinct dimension of how money distorts American democracy. Read them in order, or jump to the topic that matters to you.
The Money Machine
How lobbying, dark money, Super PACs, and a hollowed-out campaign finance system concentrate power in the hands of the donor class.
Industry Capture
Pharma, defense, fossil fuel, and tech — the four industries that spend billions to write the rules they are supposed to follow.
Wall Street & Healthcare
From crypto Super PACs to Medicare Advantage fraud, two industries that capture regulators, gut consumer protections, and privatize public systems.
Congress Inc.
Members of Congress trade stocks on insider information, leave office to become lobbyists, and operate in a system where organized labor is outspent 16 to 1.
Courts, Maps & Ballots
Billionaires buy judicial seats, gerrymanders lock in minority rule, and corporate money floods ballot measures to veto the will of voters.
The Justice System
Private prisons profit from incarceration, the gun lobby blocks reform after every massacre, and corporate monopolies crush competitors while enforcers are starved of funding.
Corruption & Reform
State-level bribery, foreign influence operations, and the reform movements fighting to reclaim democracy — from NYC's matching funds to overturning Citizens United.
Industries That Shape Daily Life
Telecom giants capture the FCC, real estate lobbies kill rent control, and agribusiness monopolies fix beef prices — the industries that control what you eat, where you live, and what you pay for internet.
The Tax Code & Education
91 Fortune 500 companies paid zero federal tax while Intuit spent $93 million killing free filing — and billionaire families spent over $1 billion reshaping American schools in their image.
The Influence Machine
From Heritage Foundation’s $134 million budget to Arabella’s $1.51 billion network, the think tanks, dark money conduits, and model-bill factories that manufacture the ideas politicians pretend are their own.
How to Use This Guide
This guide exists because the information it contains is deliberately difficult to find. Campaign finance data is scattered across dozens of federal databases, state agencies, court filings, and academic papers. Lobbying disclosures are filed in formats designed to be searched but not read. Dark money, by definition, resists documentation.
We spent months assembling this data from primary sources: the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, FEC filings, USASpending.gov, ProPublica's 990 database, state campaign finance agencies, congressional financial disclosures, federal court records, and peer-reviewed research from political science, economics, and law.
Every dollar figure in this guide is sourced. Where estimates conflict, we note the range and cite the methodology. Where data is incomplete — as it often is with dark money — we say so explicitly rather than filling gaps with speculation.
This is not a partisan document. The corruption it describes is bipartisan. Democrats and Republicans alike benefit from the revolving door, trade stocks on insider information, and accept money from the industries they regulate. The system is the problem, and the system serves both parties.
Start Reading
Begin with Chapter 1 to understand the foundational mechanics of political money, or jump to any chapter that interests you.