Terrorism And The Economy: How the War on Terror is Bankrupting the World

Description

Economist and bestselling author Loretta Napoleoni traces the link between the finances of the War on Terror and the global economic crisis, finding connections from Dubai to London to Las Vegas that politicians and the media have, at best, ignored. Consumers and tax payers, spurred by propaganda fears, were lured into crushing global debt. Napoleoni shows readers that if the world does not face up to the many serious connections between the response to 9/11 and the financial crisis, it can never work its way out of global recession.

A woman of the Left who garners praise from Noam Chomsky and Greg Palast at the same time as she is quoted respectfully inForbesand theWall Street Journal, economist LORETTA NAPOLEONI has been an advisor to national governments while being one of the harshest of critics of the underlying principles and policies of the current world banking system. Napoleoni's books, includingRogue Economics- Capitalism's New Reality(aPublishers WeeklyBest Book of 2008) andTerror Incorporated- Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism, have been international bestsellers and are translated into eighteen foreign languages. A longtime activist, a former Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins' Paul H. Nitze School, a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics, and chair of the Club de Madrid countering terrorismfinancing group, Napoleoni has traveled widely in the Middle East and around the world. Her essays and columns have appeared in theChicago Tribune,La Stampa,La Repubblica,El Pais, andLe Monde. Her most recent book isMaonomics- How Chinese Communists Make Better Capitalists Than We Do.

"This is Napoleoni's third book on the economics of terrorism and it might be her best so far." -Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy "Napoleoni (Terror, Inc.) lays the blame for the current economic crisis on the Bush Administration's response to 9/11. Launching unwinnable wars on two fronts was, she argues, not only a disproportionate response, but came with unintended consequences. Because the Administration did not think it was feasible to raise taxes to cover the cost of the wars, the U.S. was dependent on international finance, particularly China. This bankrupted the U.S. economy, Napoleoni argues, and triggered 'the biggest credit crunch in modern history,' while creating conditions for the emergence of Islamic finance as 'the most dynamic sector of global finance.' Swinging from sweeping generalizations to genuinely intriguing ideas, the author draws upon past characterizations by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes of what she calls 'true, authentic capitalism.' She calls the capitalist of the past 'an adversary worthy of respect' in comparison to those today, 'made rich by globalization who are either thieves or simpletons.'" -Publishers Weekly