by Matt Kennard (Zed Books, ISBN 9781780329888)
This timely and readable book is a distillation of Matt Kennard’s investigative reports, over four years, as a journalist for the Financial Times. The Racket of the title is the global scam that the military, political and financial elite – the 1% – have inflicted on the rest of us. Beginning with an overview of the emergence of the US hegemony in the post-War world, Kennard ranges widely in his attempt to show the scope and depth of the Racket. From the ‘disaster capitalism’ imposed on a hurricane-traumatized Haiti to the undermining of democracy in Bolivia, Kennard lays bare the mechanics of the scam. As he rightly says – and as the people of Greece know – ‘In a world based on the exchange of goods and services, the most effective way of controlling people – or nations – is to put them in your debt.’
