The finance curse : how global finance is making us all poorer / Nicholas Shaxson.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Grove Press, 2019Edition: First Grove Atlantic hardcover editionDescription: 376 pages ; 23 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780802128478
- 0802128475
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 332.042 S537 | Available | 33111009548104 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Northport Library | NonFiction | 332.042 S537 | Available | 33111008981207 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A searing indictment of global finance, exploring how the banking sector grew from a supporter of business to the biggest business in the world, and showing how societies might fight against financial hegemony
Financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson first made his reputation studying the "resource curse," seeing first-hand the disastrous economic and societal effects of the discovery of oil in Angola. He then gained prominence as an expert on tax havens, revealing the dark corners of that world long before the scandals of the Panama and Paradise Papers. Now, in The Finance Curse , revised with chapters exclusive to this American edition, he takes us on a terrifying journey through the world economy, exposing tax havens, monopolists, megabanks, private equity firms, Eurobond traders, lobbyists, and a menagerie of scoundrels quietly financializing our entire society, hurting both business and individuals.
Shaxson shows we got here, telling the story of how finance re-engineered the global economic order in the last half-century, with the aim not of creating wealth but extracting it from the underlying economy. Under the twin gospels of "national competitiveness" and "shareholder value," megabanks and financialized corporations have provoked a race to the bottom between states to provide the most subsidized environment for big business, have encouraged a brain drain into finance, and have fostered instability, inequality, and turned a blind eye to the spoils of organized crime. From Ireland to Iowa, Shaxson shows the insidious effects of financialization on our politics and on communities who were promised paradise but got poverty wages instead.
We need a strong financial system--but when it grows too big it becomes a monster. The Finance Curse is the explosive story of how finance got a stranglehold on society, and reveals how we might release ourselves from its grasp.
"Originally published by The Bodley Head in 2018"--ECIP galley.
Sabotage -- Neoliberalism without borders -- Britain's second empire -- The invisible fist -- The third way -- The Celtic tiger -- The London loophole -- Wealth and its armor -- Private octopus -- Big hog.
"Financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson first made his reputation as a war reporter studying the 'resource curse,' seeing first-hand the disastrous economic and societal effects that followed the discovery of oil in Angola. He then gained prominence as an expert on tax havens, revealing the dark corners of that world long before the scandals of the Panama and Paradise Papers. Now, in The Finance Curse, revised with chapters exclusive to the American edition, he brings his broad knowledge to bear in an eye-opening investigation of how finance has overbalanced the economies of Western democracies, exerting an outsize effect on policy-making and effecting a brain drain of the brightest and best to the financial industry and its offshoots, much to the detriment of both the business sector and broader society. Shaxson explores the transmogrification of banks over the twentieth century from relatively small institutions that did well for themselves by serving the needs of business to unfettered global behemoths. These megabanks now spread the fiscal gospel that business must be taxed as little as possible to achieve unconstrained profits. It has encouraged a race to the bottom between states to provide the most subsidized environment for big business that rides on the toil and taxes of everyone else, all in the name of a bogus 'competitiveness.' We need strong financial institutions-but when finance grows too big it becomes a curse. The Finance Curse is the explosive story of how finance got a stranglehold on society and provides powerful new insights into how we might release ourselves from its grasp. It is a book that none of us can afford to ignore"-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-366) and index.