The Blood Bankers: Tales from the Global Underground Economy

by James S. Henry

From 1970 to 2003, over three trillion dollars—$3,000,000,000,000—were loaned to developing countries by the West. Yet the gap between rich and poor is worse than ever. What happened? Where did all that money go? A financial insider, Jim Henry looks unsparingly at the snarl of transactions, often legal but usually immoral, that resulted in the rich getting richer and the poor, poorer. Like tentacles on a vast octopus, the firsthand investigations in The Blood Bankers all lead to one core. A financial detective of sorts, journalist Jim Henry analyzes a range of scandals, including the looting of the Philippines by the Marcos family, corrupt lending in South America, and the financing of Al Qaeda. A rogue's gallery of international criminals owes its existence to the dramatic growth of the underground global economy over the last two decades. Our world is being reshaped, often in sinister fashion, by wide-open capital markets and an international banking network that exists to launder hundreds of billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. Here is globalization's dark side—the new high-growth global markets for influence-peddling, capital flight, money laundering, weapons, drugs, tax evasion, child labor, illegal immigration, and other forms of transnational crime.

Genres: Finance, Economics, History, Nonfiction, Banking, Politics

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Captjohnsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Especially interesting in light of the recent banking crisis -- if policy makers had only paid attention. This book reminded me that Wall Street has been misbehaving for decade, but most of the "test runs" were in poorer countries, where the banks pretty much got away scot free with irresponsible lending, sticking local governments with bad projects and huge bailouts. The book has detailed first-hand cases on eight major countries. Long, heavy-going at times, but worth it. I found the best chapters were on the Philippines, Brazil and Iraq, where it turns out the West basically tried to stick Saddam with the costs of the Iran-Iraq War, pushing him into his attack on Kuwait! Everyone else made it seem like that invasion was a case of evil old Saddam just wanting to expand; this book actually has a clearer explanation -- in terms of lousy lending. Wow!

[Priscilla Star · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you laboring through the current economic crisis, this book will be an eye-opener. It focuses on the misbehavior of Western banks in developing countries over the last fifty years -- with a series of concrete investigations, not just economic theory. You'll be amazed to find that much of the recent misbehavior in the First World has been going on for decades offshore! This book was work to get through -- it is packed with information. But if you really want to understanding what's going on, it's about time we did this kind of homework.....Not surprisingly, the book didn't get much "hype" from the establishment press, but it has a loyal following....and is showing up on more and more university reading lists. For anyone about to travel to Brazil or Venezuela or the Philippines or South Africa, this will also be very helpful background....

[Igor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potencial desperdiçado - avaliação da parte que menciona o Brasil

Pode-se achar o autor, James Henry, numa palestra do TED. Nesta é possível identificar o mesmo problema do livro: comunicação ruim. O assunto é muito interessante, atinge a vida de todos nós e é pouco abordado por outros autores. Seria um prato cheio para o sucesso, mas não foi o caso. No mesmo assunto, recomendo o livro: Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World, de Nicholas Shaxson [sem tradução para o português]. Esse, sim, bem escrito e com uma infinidade de referências e informações (todas de possível checagem na internet) que vão surpreender muita gente.

Destaco que li somente a parte referente aos casos que ele investigou no Brasil e reconheço que é muito interessante, mas superficial. O autor vai das usinas nucleares de Angra dos Reis e o caso da venda de armas para o Iraque, passa pela atuação de bancos estrangeiros no Brasil, como J.P. Morgan, do regime militar até a vitória de Lula em 2002. Muitas referências interessantes que abriram minha cabeça para ler outros materiais. De novo, de forma muito superficial.

[maryanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely learned a lot about the IMF, world bank, money laundering havens etc, by nature of the fact that I knew nothing about these topics before. However, I felt like this book lacked scale; it only focused on the actions of these launderers, without situating these stories in the broader context of other actors/policy/history etc, so I just felt overall like the plot lacked dimension.

[Steve Heil · Rating 3 out of 5]

S'ok.
Good information for a while, but then turns repetitive.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like a travel guide for nefarious economic leverage. Maybe not the best read of the year, but worth checking out.