Books Briefly Noted
The New Yorker ~ June 23, 2008
Citing estimates that the world’s illicit economy accounts for nearly twenty per cent of worldwide turnover, Glenny tracks the spread of sophisticated transnational criminality. The collapse of Communism and the deregulation of financial markets have created rich opportunities for the criminally entrepreneurial in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and even fleece-wearing British Columbia. Meanwhile, criminal organizations, cannily mirroring the practices of their legitimate counterparts, have exploited economies of scale, developed worldwide partnerships, and cultivated new markets. As a result, bank fraud, human trafficking, protection rackets, narcotics smuggling, state-sanctioned embezzlement, assassinations, and even old-fashioned political corruption are practiced today on a scale previously unimaginable. Without “some form of global governance,” Glenny grimly concludes, the prosperous West’s appetites will insure the continued existence of the flat world’s sordid and dangerous flipside. ♦
See earlier Blog: http://update.bigapple1.info/?p=18