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McMAFIA

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GLOBAL CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD

A bracing, frightening ride through a dark world experiencing “a vigorous springtime.”

Today’s international crime syndicates are more powerful than ever, and likely to become more so.

So warns Glenny (The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999, 2000, etc.), formerly a BBC correspondent in Central Europe. That region’s particular brand of organized crime is spreading around the world, he demonstrates in persuasive, alarming detail. When ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia finally subsided, it left in its wake “a wrecked local economy and a society dominated by testosterone-driven young men who [were] suddenly unemployed.” This combination, which quickly led to society-wide corruption and crime in the Balkans, proved just as toxic in parts of the disintegrated Soviet Union and civil war–ravaged Africa and Latin America. Glenny’s animated prose describes a slew of countries stretching from Bulgaria to Brazil and Nigeria in which the shadow economy of protection, kidnapping, gambling and smuggling threatens to overtake legitimate business—if it hasn’t already done so. (Globalization and web-based technologies have opened opportunities for gangsters as well as entrepreneurs.) Based on the author’s skillful investigative journalism, this survey of international wrongdoing makes for fantastic reading that surprises on more than one occasion: Who knew that western Canada had more organized criminal syndicates per capita than any other nation? In this world, gangsters and politicians, criminals and law-abiding citizens are rarely far apart. Highlighting those links, Glenny writes, “no organized criminal is as successful as the one who enjoys the backing of the state.” He loses his cool when tying all the bloodletting back to those who consider themselves quite apart from such things: Western consumers who, wittingly or not, feed the beast with their appetites for everything from drugs to prostitutes to cheap plastic goods. In his view, globally organized crime is a worldwide crisis linked to and nearly eclipsing terrorism as a threat.

A bracing, frightening ride through a dark world experiencing “a vigorous springtime.”

Pub Date: April 10, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-4000-4411-5

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2008

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THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE

A cosmic straw man is vanquished in the fight against dangerous ideals such as social justice and equality. This is not the place to look for original ideas or honest analysis. Presumably, Sowell’s (Migrations and Cultures, 1996, etc.) goal is to entertain those who share his convictions rather than convince open-minded readers, and this audience will be pleased. “Cosmic justice” is presented as a fundamental departure from the “traditional” conception of justice, which Sowell claims has the “characteristic of a process,” rather than of a particular outcome. He conveniently forgets to mention that this “tradition” dates back only to the emergence of liberal-democratic states and that contrasting notions of procedural vs. substantive justice remain the subject of lively debate. Admitting legitimate disagreement over even something as slippery as justice would soften the blows he aims at those who think inequality and any associated oppression raises concerns a just society should address, and Sowell is not one to temper a political argument simply to maintain intellectual integrity. He is not straightforwardly defending inequality, of course, but rather is pursuing the familiar strategy of attacking measures that could alleviate it. Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, boldly asserts that those who believe equality should be pursued through public policy “assume that politicizing inequality is free of costs and dangers.” No names are mentioned, and it is indeed hard to imagine that anyone would believe there are no costs or dangers. By stating the issue in terms of extremes, however, he ducks the real issue—the challenge of weighing costs and benefits—and avoids the need for incorporating any subtlety into his discussion. Confronted with such disingenuous blather, readers may find Sowell’s criticism of others applies well to Sowell himself: “To explain the levels of dogmatism and resistance to facts found in too many writings . . . it is necessary to explore what purposes are served by these visions.”

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-684-86462-2

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Free Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999

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WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM?

Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.

Remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Smith (Rethinking America, 1995, etc.).

“Over the past three decades,” writes the author, “we have become Two Americas.” We have arrived at a new Gilded Age, where “gross inequality of income and wealth” have become endemic. Such inequality is not simply the result of “impersonal and irresistible market forces,” but of quite deliberate corporate strategies and the public policies that enabled them. Smith sets out on a mission to trace the history of these strategies and policies, which transformed America from a roughly fair society to its current status as a plutocracy. He leaves few stones unturned. CEO culture has moved since the 1970s from a concern for the general well-being of society, including employees, to the single-minded pursuit of personal enrichment and short-term increases in stock prices. During much of the ’70s, CEO pay was roughly 40 times a worker’s pay; today that number is 367. Whether it be through outsourcing and factory closings, corporate reneging on once-promised contributions to employee health and retirement funds, the deregulation of Wall Street and the financial markets, a tax code which favors overwhelmingly the interests of corporate heads and the superrich—all of which Smith examines in fascinating detail—the American middle class has been left floundering. For its part, government has simply become an enabler and partner of the rich, as the rich have turned wealth into political influence and rigid conservative opposition has created the politics of gridlock. What, then, is to be done? Here, Smith’s brilliant analyses turn tepid, as he advocates for “a peaceful political revolution at the grassroots” to realign the priorities of government and the economy but offers only the vaguest of clues as to how this might occur.

Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.

Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2012

ISBN: 978-1-4000-6966-8

Page Count: 576

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012

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