>I think that the grouping that you are talking about is what C.
>Wright Mills calls "the power elite." It is indeed the power elite
>who make decisions on "the deployment of US imperial power abroad,"
>but is it the power elite who determine "the conditions of social
>labor"?
I prefer the term ruling class to power elite, but it's a class with several subspecialties. A bunch of CEOs might say, "W, I think you need to do something about X," and W will probably listen, though neither he nor the CEOs will be involved with the planning of the operation directed at X. (That may be a cruise missile attack or a new tax policy.) The same CEOs may also say, "We need to get our costs down," and they tell their subordiantes to cut their costs by 10%. They may think that because their share price is slumping or the chief investment officer of CalPERS has been on the phone complaining about weak earnings.
Doug