Sabotage: The Business of Finance

Description

Two leading political scientists show why the financial sector is an 'industry of sabotage', with systemic malpractice at the heart of its business model Financial malpractice, we're told, is an aberration- the actions of a few bad apples gaming the system. In Sabotage, political scientists Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen Palan blow this fiction apart, showing that sabotage is not an anomaly, but part of the business model of finance - and always has been. Misleading investors, falsifying figures and taking advantage of 'the dumbest person in the room' - they're actually the surest way to a bonus. If you want to make money in the industry, you need to sabotage either your clients, your competitors or the government (or all three). Talking to industry insiders, economists and high net worth customers, the authors show us how the idea of sabotage not only makes sense of all past economic crises, but must also be at the heart of all future regulations.

Anastasia Nesvetailova is the Director of the City Political Economy Research Centre and author of numerous academic and media articles on financial crises and stability. She teaches at City University, London. Ronen Palan is Professor of International Political Economy at City University, London. He has written extensively on the political economy of the state and globalization, as well as specializing in offshore finance.

Sabotage is a great book. It lifts the lid on shocking, systematic abuses, of which every user of financial services needs to be aware. It ought to be required reading for every civil servant, regulator and politician in the UK and elsewhere. -- Ian Fraser * Literary Review * If you're a progressive, in Britain or elsewhere, and if you think the movement needs fresh ideas, read this book, it's full of them. Then get to work. -- Oliver Bullough * The Guardian * Distinctive, fresh and well-justified... Sabotage deserves high praise for fulfilling the most valuable injunction of all when it comes to catastrophic crises with terrible human costs: never forget. -- Felix Martin * New Statesman * Nesvetailova and Palan trace how financiers have corrupted the purpose of the corporation, undermined our tax authorities, foxed the regulators, evaded the forces of law and order, and generally rigged markets in their favour. There's a word for all this - sabotage. And as it has unfolded, finance has been steadily sabotaging our democracies. This lucid, persuasive and timely new book hits the nail on the head. -- Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World