Summary
Contents
Subject index
Alongside burgeoning global business, which asserts its legality, ethics and social responsibility, there exists a dark side of shadow trades manifesting various shades of legitimacy. Not only do the latter’s corrupt practices, dubious supply chains and other illicit operations run in tandem with global business, these borderless trades intersect with economic structures and contribute to systems adopted by corporations, endorsed by neoliberal capitalism, that are often condoned by governments and unwittingly sustained by consumers. In a very real sense, all of us may be implicated in shadow trades through our work, consumption and citizenship. Even before we can begin to confront and constrain shadow trades, their business models first need to be identified and analysed in all their networked complexity, interconnectivity with global business and embeddedness within the world economy. Numerous hard questions need to be raised around enabling circumstances and responsibilities of stakeholders, as well as the winners and losers resulting from business globalisation and socio-economic inequities within and between countries. Providing background, evidence and analysis on select exemplars of shadow trades, this book provides graduate students of business, plus scholars in the social sciences, together with practitioners and policymakers, consumer groups and civil society, with an indispensable resource for critical engagement. Only through knowledge gained by research and advocacy for transparency can we begin to shed light on this dark side of global business, enabling all of us to grapple with activism against and collaborative action towards undermining all shadow trades. Amos Owen Thomas was a Docent / Reader in Marketing and International Business at Stockholm University until his recent retirement
Financial Sleight & Money Laundering
Financial Sleight & Money Laundering
Credit: Drozdin Vladimir/Shutterstock
Overview in Introduction
The deregulation of financial markets late in the 20th century, which artificially boosted world economic growth, helped multinational corporations and the mega-rich to move their funds around the world, particularly to tax havens abroad. Drug barons, political dictators, warlords, terrorist organisations and corrupt officials, among others, have also been enabled to shift dubious income with much greater ease. Money laundering could have reached almost USD2 trillion by the late 2010s, making this shadow trade a significant part of the world economy. This chapter traces how the legitimate banking sector has enabled corrupt local officials, corporate embezzlers and organised crime to move funds to the detriment of socio-economic growth, especially of ...
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