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How a Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate the World
Simon and Schuster
October 2010
On Sale: September 21, 2010
320 pages
ISBN: 143910915X
EAN: 9781439109151
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Acclaimed financial journalist Eric J. Weiner reveals how
foreign countries and private investors are increasingly
controlling the global economy and secretly wresting power
from the United States in ways that our government cannot
reverse and about which the average American knows
nothing.The most potent force in global commerce today is
not the Federal Reserve, not the international banks, not
the governments of the G7 countries, and certainly not the
European Union. Rather, it is the multi-trillion-dollar
network of super-rich, secretive, and largely unregulated
investment vehicles—foreign sovereign wealth funds,
government-run corporations, private equity funds, and hedge
funds—that are quietly buying up the world, piece by
valuable piece. As Weiner’s groundbreaking account shows, the shadow market
doesn’t have a physical headquarters such as Wall Street. It
doesn’t have a formal leadership or an index to track or a
single zone of exchange. Rather, it comprises an invisible
and ever-shifting global nexus where money mixes with
geopolitical power, often with great speed and secrecy. Led
by cash-flush nations such as China, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi,
Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and even Norway, the shadow market
is hiring the brightest international financial talent money
can buy and is now assembling the gigantic investment
portfolios that will form the power structure of tomorrow’s
economy. Taking advantage of the Great Recession and subsequent
liquidity problems in the United States and Europe, the
major players of the shadow market are deploying staggering
amounts of cash, controlling the capital markets, and
securing not only major stakes in multinational companies
but huge tracts of farmland and natural resources across the
world. Yet that’s not all; they’re also pursuing political
agendas made possible by their massive wealth and are
becoming increasingly aggressive with the United States and
other governments. Highly informative and genuinely
startling, Eric J. Weiner’s up-to-date account gets out in
front of daily events, with proof of his argument destined
to appear in the news for years to come. The Shadow Market
moves the conversation from “international competition” to
“global financial warfare,” and stands as an urgent
must-read for anyone interested in the future of the global
economy, America’s position in the world, or how and where
to invest money today.DID YOU KNOW?***The Pentagon has run
elaborate simulations of global financial war. Result:
America lost, and the shadow market won. ***The U.S. dollar
is under siege as a global currency; oil-producing nations
have already begun secret discussions about replacing it in
oil trading. ***While Greece was burning in the spring of
2010, the shadow market nations were spending hundreds of
billions of dollars all over the world rather than helping
to fix the European crisis. Why? Because it wasn’t their
problem. ***With its wealth of natural resources, Brazil may
be more powerful than Germany, France, and Great Britain put
together, and may soon rival the United States for economic
supremacy in the Western Hemisphere. ***In April 2009, China told the International Monetary Fund
to sell 3,217 tons of gold. How much did China buy? That’s a
secret. What else is China buying? As many of the oil
reserves in non–Middle Eastern countries as it can,
including in Canada. It has bought so many Australian
natural resource companies that Australia is getting
nervous. And some would say that China has, in effect,
already purchased Taiwan. ***Many of the shadow market
countries are racing to improve their food-security risks by
buying large swaths of farmland in other countries,
potentially at the risk of starving the local citizens.
Saudi Arabia has a farm the size of Connecticut in
Indonesia, and Korean industrial giant Daewoo controls half
the arable land of Madagascar. ***Iran is China’s third
largest oil supplier and in return receives significant
protection from Chinese diplomats, who are increasingly
important players on the geopolitical stage. ***The shadow
market countries will soon control nearly $20 trillion in
assets, a sum greater than the gross domestic product of the
United States. such as Wall Street. It doesn’t have a formal
leadership or an index to track or a single zone of
exchange. Rather, it comprises an invisible and
ever-shifting global nexus where money mixes with
geopolitical power, often with great speed and secrecy.
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