Political Economy of Elder Financial Exploitation
Political Economy of Elder Financial Exploitation Nicholas Djoulia May 2026 Abstract Since the dawn of the digital age, financial fraud targeting senior citizens has been one of the most significant yet underrepresented economic and political issues in American life. In 2024 alone, $81.5 billion was lost, with a potential $137 billion when accounting for underestimation. With these figures, elder financial exploitation (EFE) has shifted from small-scale, individual risks to systemic economic risks, posing a significant threat to our financial institutions. This paper delves into that fact that EFE must be reframed as a broad market failure accelerated by these main drivers: the concentration of wealth in a technologically vulnerable generation, deception of this generation through artificial intelligence (AI), and lack of regulatory framework constitutionally and its inability to combat the harm being done; this is a full shift away from the issue being framed as a financial lite...