![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/16/01/AP25013655906224.jpg?width=1200&auto=webp)
President Joe Biden warned in his farewell address to the nation Wednesday night that a new gilded age of “robber barons” was in danger of eroding Americans’ hard-won freedoms unless the government takes steps to ensure that the ultra-wealthy pay a fair share in taxes and aren’t allowed to exercise outsized power.