Capitalism'S Achilles Heel: Dirty Money And How Torenew The Free-Market System

For over forty years in more than sixty countries, Raymond Baker has witnessed the free-market system operating illicitly and corruptly, with devastating consequences. In Capitalism’s Achilles Heel, Baker takes readers on a fascinating journey through the global free-market system and reveals how dirty money, poverty, and inequality are inextricably intertwined. Readers will discover how small illicit transactions lead to massive illegalities and how staggering global income disparities are worsened by the illegalities that permeate international capitalism. Drawing on his experiences, Baker shows how Western banks and businesses use secret transactions and ignore laws while handling some $1 trillion in illicit proceeds each year. He also illustrates how businesspeople, criminals, and kleptocrats perfect the same techniques to shift funds and how these tactics negatively affect individuals, institutions, and countries.

Raymond W. Baker, after a long career in international business, is a guest scholar at The Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, both located in Washington, D.C. He appears often on television and radio in the United States and overseas and often testifies before House and Senate committees. Baker has an MBA from Harvard, lived in Africa for many years, and has done business across much of the developing world.

Prologue.

Chapter 1: Global Capitalism: Savior or Predator?

PART I: Illegality: We Like the Money.

Chapter 2: Playing the Game.

The Dirty-Money User Manual.

You’re in Business.

Chapter 3: Dirty Money at Work.

The Corruption Industry.

The Criminal Component: Drugs, Thugs, and Terrorists.

Global Commerce and Tax Evasion: Coin of the Realm.

Chapter 4: Magnitudes and Misunderstandings.

How Much Money?

A Failure Rate of 99.9 Percent.

Well-Intentioned Efforts.

The Patriot Act.

Dirty Money Is on the Rise.

Chasing Terrorists’ Money.

Ill-Intentioned Loopholes.

Haven and Secrecy Structure.

Falsified Pricing Structure.

We Like the Money.

Challenge.

PART II: Inequality: The Gap Matters.

Chapter 5: The Global Divide.

The Quintile Canyon.

Measure for Measure.

It’s an Uncertain World.

The Monkey Wrench.

Chapter 6: “I Don’t Understand” and “Don’t Tell Anyone”.

Myths.

“Don’t Tell Anyone”.

Corruption—At Long Last!

Filling Western Coffers: Mum’s the Word.

Debtor’s Prison.

What If?

Intellectual Gap or Character Gap?

Chapter 7: It’s the 70 to 90 Percent that Matters.

It Can’t Last.

Convergence?

The Gap Matters.

Challenge.

PART III: Disutility: Bentham KOs Smith.

Chapter 8: The Anguish of Adam Smith.

Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Wealth of Nations.

Invisible Hand.

Das Adam Smith Problem.

The Tears of Adam Smith.

Chapter 9: The Joys of Jeremy Bentham.

Jurisprudence.

Utilitarianism.

Related Interests.

John Stuart Mill.

Problems.

Chapter 10: Philosophy Becomes Culture.

The Great Infusion.

Twentieth-Century Utility.

Twentieth-Century Utilitarianism.

Inoperable Doctrine, Deadly Practice.

Disutility.

Challenge.

PART IV: Run It Right: Trust the System.

Chapter 11: Capitalism’s Achilles Heel.

Chapter 12: Spreading Prosperity.

Delegitimizing Dirty Money.

Tougher on Corruption.

Reining in the Support Structure.

Mispricing and Transfer Pricing.

Capitalism’s Contribution to Slashing Inequality.

“. . . When You Pay Me What You Owe Me”.

Reconstitute the World Bank.

Justice First.

Chapter 13: Renewing Capitalism.

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Index.