McGill University economist Naylor depicts a postWW II intercontinental inferno of high finance involving deceit, corruption, fraud, greed, conspiracy, tax evasion, drug dealing, arms smuggling and politico-monetary "peekaboo" sleight-of-hand as government VIPs worldwide, international bankers, labor unions, the CIA, the Mafia, the Vatican, the Moonies, Latin American juntas, African potentates and Middle East terrorists, Hong Kong and Panama innovators, covert contra-aiders and assorted illicit combines variously divert billions from the economy of nations. Secret Swiss and "offshore" bank accounts, dummy corporations and the like siphon off "hot money," which in some cases, charges the author, may equal a country's entire national debt. "There would be no debt crisis," he concludes, "without large-scale capital flight." Dozens of such intrigues are chronicled here with massive data, some of it "alleged," "claimed," "rumored" or "likely," yet all of it rings with credibility.
~ Publishers Weekly
