Synopses & Reviews
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2008
STRAIGHT.COM FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2008
“Timely and fascinating, Napoleoni’s top-notch reporting, in which her attention turns from Viagra to blood diamonds to the banana price wars in a few pages, works in the vein of Freakonomics, and Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, but much grimmer.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Loretta Napoleoni’s devilishly enjoyable journey into the money veins of the new global order—from sex slavery to fad-diet slavery...is truly incredibly original.”—GREG PALAST, AUTHOR OF THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY
“Rogue Economics offers a fascinating view of how terribly wrong things have gone.” —JOHN PERKINS, AUTHOR OF CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
What do Eastern Europe’s booming sex trade, America’s subprime mortgage lending scandal, China’s fake goods industry, and celebrity philanthropy in Africa have in common? With biopirates trolling the blood industry, fish-farming bandits ravaging the high seas, pornography developing virtually in Second Life, and games like World of Warcraft spawning online sweatshops, how are rogue industries transmuting into global empires? And will the entire system be transformed by the advent of sharia economics? Economist and best-selling author Loretta Napoleoni examines how dark economic forces are creating victims out of millions of ordinary people whose lives have become trapped inside a world they don’t understand.
Loretta Napoleoni is the author of the best-selling book Terror Inc.: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism, which has been translated into twelve languages. One of the world’s leading experts on money laundering and terror financing, she has worked as London correspondent and columnist for Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, El Pais, and Le Monde. A former Fulbright scholar, she holds a PhD in economics, an MA in international relations and economics from Johns Hopkins University, and an MPhil in terrorism from the London School of Economics. For her work as a consultant for the commodities markets, she traveled regularly to Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries, where she has met top financial and political leaders. She lives in London.
Synopsis
What do Eastern Europe's booming sex trade, America's subprime mortgage lending scandal, Chinas fake goods industry, and celebrity philanthropy in Africa have in common? With biopirates trolling the blood industry, fish-farming bandits ravaging the high seas, pornography developing virtually in Second Life, and games like World of Warcraft spawning online sweatshops, how are rogue industries transmuting into global empires? And will the entire system be transformed by the advent of sharia economics? With the precision of an economist and the narrative deftness of a storyteller, syndicated journalist Loretta Napoleoni examines how the world is being reshaped by dark economic forces, creating victims out of millions of ordinary people whose lives have become trapped inside a fantasy world of consumerism. Napoleoni reveals the architecture of our world, and in doing so provides fresh insight into many of the most insoluble problems of our era.
Synopsis
Why counterfeiters, sex traders, gamers, racketeers, and pirates are re-shaping the world. Revised and updated.
About the Author
A woman of the Left who garners praise from Noam Chomsky and Greg Palast at the same time as she is quoted respectfully in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, economist LORETTA NAPOLEONI has been an advisor to national governments while being one of the harshest of critics of the underlying principles and policies of the current world banking system. Napoleoni’s books, including Rogue Economics: Capitalism's New Reality (a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2008) and Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism, have been international bestsellers and are translated into eighteen foreign languages. A longtime activist, a former Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins’ Paul H. Nitze School, a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics, and chair of the Club de Madrid countering terrorism financing group, Napoleoni has traveled widely in the Middle East and around the world. Her essays and columns have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, La Stampa, La Repubblica, El País, and Le Monde. Her most recent book is Maonomics: How Chinese Communists Make Better Capitalists Than We Do.