Capitalism's Achilles Heel

Raymond W. Baker, after a long career in international business, is a guest scholar at The Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, both located in Washington, D.C. He appears often on television and radio in the United States and overseas and often testifies before House and Senate committees. Baker has an MBA from Harvard, lived in Africa for many years, and has done business across much of the developing world.

"...Challenging the view that financial scandal and tax dodging are isolated cases in an otherwise robust system, Capitalism's Achilles Heel shows how these 'negative externalities', as economists call them, have generated a spirit of lawlessness that threatens the integrity of the market system and the finance industry as a whole..." (The London Review of Books, 6th October 2005) "...Baker is an ethical capitalist - at least - more so than most - his concern is the incredible rapacity and corruption of modern capitalism - a must-read for those on the left...." (The Morning Star, 28th September 2005)“…excellent book…well-researched…” (Financial Times, 10th August 2005)

• Prologue 1CHAPTER 1 Global Capitalism: Savior or Predator? 11PART I Illegality: We Like the Money 21CHAPTER 2 Playing the Game 23The Dirty-Money User Manual 24You're in Business 47CHAPTER 3 Dirty Money at Work 48The Corruption Industry 49The Criminal Component: Drugs, Thugs, 88and TerroristsGlobal Commerce and Tax Evasion: Coin of the Realm 133CHAPTER 4 Magnitudes and Misunderstandings 162How Much Money? 162A Failure Rate of 99.9 Percent 173Well-Intentioned Efforts 174The Patriot Act 177Dirty Money Is on the Rise 182Chasing Terrorists' Money 183Ill-Intentioned Loopholes 186Haven and Secrecy Structure 191Falsified Pricing Structure 194We Like the Money 201Challenge 205PART II Inequality: The Gap Matters 207CHAPTER 5 The Global Divide 210The Quintile Canyon 210Measure for Measure 217It's an Uncertain World 224The Monkey Wrench 234CHAPTER 6 "I Don't Understand" and "Don't Tell Anyone" 240Myths 241"Don't Tell Anyone" 246Corruption—At Long Last! 249Filling Western Coffers: Mum's the Word 252Debtor's Prison 254What If? 257Intellectual Gap or Character Gap? 258CHAPTER 7 It's the 70 to 90 Percent that Matters 262It Can't Last 262Convergence? 267The Gap Matters 272Challenge 275PART III Disutility: Bentham KOs Smith 279CHAPTER 8 The Anguish of Adam Smith 282Theory of Moral Sentiments 283Wealth of Nations 286Invisible Hand 290Das Adam Smith Problem 293The Tears of Adam Smith 297CHAPTER 9 The Joys of Jeremy Bentham 300Jurisprudence 301Utilitarianism 302Related Interests 305John Stuart Mill 307Problems 309CHAPTER 10 Philosophy Becomes Culture 312The Great Infusion 313Twentieth-Century Utility 319Twentieth-Century Utilitarianism 321Inoperable Doctrine, Deadly Practice 323Disutility 327Challenge 330PART IV Run It Right: Trust the System 333CHAPTER 11 Capitalism's Achilles Heel 337CHAPTER 12 Spreading Prosperity 342Delegitimizing Dirty Money 342Tougher on Corruption 346Reining in the Support Structure 346Mispricing and Transfer Pricing 348Capitalism's Contribution to Slashing Inequality 351". . . When You Pay Me What You Owe Me" 353Reconstitute the World Bank 360Justice First 361CHAPTER 13 Renewing Capitalism 368Acknowledgments 377Notes 383Index 425