Subtitle is "a journey through the global criminal underworld."
Glenny says when you add up all the estimates, that global crime is 15-20 percent of global GDP. This is the biggest estimate out there, and by definition, I tend to doubt it, because the ones who push these calculations most are always trying to move product with the fear factor.
The future of the criminal underworld is the final chapter and it's all about China.
Thing about this is that that "future" tends to feature a new player every generation, and the player always hails from a region just connecting up big time to globalization. Twenty years ago it was all about the Russian mafia. Go back in 20-year increments and you'll find a new going-to-run-the-world! player each time.
And of course they're always superseded, just like they are inside the United States over various waves of immigrants. Whoever's the big wave equals the new scary gang/mafia factor.
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I remember a college instructor in the 1960s who used the mafia of that time to show how their prestige $$$ spending habits were better for workers and the rest of us than the conservative rich precious metal/art hoarders.
It's curious how America and older Western communities don't seem to anticipate the next mafia wave from their core expansion/outreach efforts ... even though they have been watching some of the players with resources like CIA and MI-5.
So then we get the radio/internet speculation that it is some kind of Trilateral conspiracy from old core guys who want to move things forward (or backward) so satisfy their interests.
Boring! Time to turn to History or Science channel.
Posted by Louis Heberlein | May 1, 2008 6:29 PM