McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld
by Misha Glenny
The Week
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Times have never been better for criminal entrepreneurs, says journalist Misha Glenny. Car theft is Europe’s fastest-growing industry. Female sex slaves have become “an attractive entry-level commodity” for bad guys the world over. The collapse of the Soviet Union opened up black-market opportunities of all kinds. “A new class of capitalists,” writes Glenny, “exploited the vacuum of power by seizing whole industries and raiding the state coffers” in Russia and its former satellites. Their money poured outward, seeking safe havens, and their skills in surveillance, smuggling, and murder also found wider application. Thanks to a big assist from the liberalization of Western financial and commodities markets, says Glenny, shadow markets now account for 15 percent to 20 percent of the world’s economic output.
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