Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy

Leftwingbooks Verified independent store

→

An exposé of the extractive industries powering globalization —and a primer on fighting backLaleh Khalili reflects on the hidden stories behind late capitalism, from seafarers aban doned on debt-ridden container ships to the nefarious reach of consultancy firms and the cronyism that drives record-breaking profits. Piercing, wry, and constantly revealing, Extractive Capitalism brings vividly to light the dark truths behind the world’s most voracious industries.Whether it is pumping oil, mining resources, or shipping commodities across oceans, the global economy runs on extraction. Promises of frictionless trade and lucrative speculation are the hallmarks of our era, but the backbone of globalization is still low-cost labor and rapacious corporate control. Extractive capitalism is what made—and what maintains—our unequal world. What People Are Saying "Profound and compelling … A book that I couldn’t put down." Adam Hanieh, author of Crude Capitalism"A brilliant explainer of how the world works." Simon Kuper, Financial Times columnist and author of Impossible City About the Author Laleh Khalili teaches at the University of Exeter. Her books include Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula, Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration and The Corporeal Life of Seafaring.An Iranian American, she received a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Texas and a PhD in political science from Columbia University. She was previously a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and a Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University, London. An internationally-renowned expert on the oil industry, global trade and geopolitics in the Gulf region with over 43,000 Twitter followers, Professor Khalili has worked as a consultant and an engineer and has written widely on globalization, capital and neocolonialism. She has written for the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times and Agence France-Presse and contributes regularly to London Review of Books. Show more