Giorgio Comai (giocomai)'s status on Thursday, 18-Oct-2018 23:15:58 CEST
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Just finished reading Oliver Bullough's 'Moneyland'. It's thoroughly excellent. Some thoughts:
Readers with an interest in post-Soviet affairs may associate "Moneyland" more with Cooley and Heathershaw's "Dictators without border", than to Bullough's own previous writing on the Caucasus.
Both "Dictators without border" and "Moneyland" highlight two often underestimated aspects that characterise modern-day corruption:
1. The sheer size of it. As Bullough points out in the book's jacket, nowadays corruption can take place on an historically unprecedented scale thanks to the many wonders of the offshore world, and all that comes with it.
2. The essential enabling role of Western liberal democracies. Corruption on this scale in post-Soviet countries and other parts of the world would simply not be possible without the safe haven that their strong institutions offer to wealthy crooks from all over the world. https://social.giorgiocomai.eu/attachment/33709