APRIL 2023 - AudioFile
Kathleen Li warmly, effectively, and efficiently narrates Hoang's well-researched glimpse behind the proverbial curtain of the shadow economy that offers global elites opportunities to invest in risky frontier markets. While the content is revealing, at times shocking, Li's narration remains deliberate, measured, and unadorned. Those who have wondered about the use and purpose of offshore shell corporations to conceal and grow tax-free or tax-deferred wealth will enjoy this international excursion with the rich and superrich in emerging markets such as Vietnam, Singapore, and Myanmar. This is eye-opening material presented in a consistent manner. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
"Winner of the Alice Amsden Book Award, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics"
"Winner of the PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences, Association of American Publishers"
Winner of the PROSE Award in Business, Finance, and Management, Association of American Publishers
"Winner of the Best Scholarly Book Award, Global and Transnational Section of the American Sociological Association"
"Winner of the Asia/Transnational Book Award, Asia and Asian America Section of the American Sociological Association"
Administrative Science Quarterly
"A rich and fascinating account."
APRIL 2023 - AudioFile
Kathleen Li warmly, effectively, and efficiently narrates Hoang's well-researched glimpse behind the proverbial curtain of the shadow economy that offers global elites opportunities to invest in risky frontier markets. While the content is revealing, at times shocking, Li's narration remains deliberate, measured, and unadorned. Those who have wondered about the use and purpose of offshore shell corporations to conceal and grow tax-free or tax-deferred wealth will enjoy this international excursion with the rich and superrich in emerging markets such as Vietnam, Singapore, and Myanmar. This is eye-opening material presented in a consistent manner. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-07-13
A revealing look at how a secretive, often criminal element enables the rich to “make and protect not only their money, but also their reputations.”
Hoang, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, takes a deep dive into the everyday economics of “frontier markets,” places where investors make fortunes by greasing the palms of willing government officials and bankers. One such place is Vietnam, where, one wheeler-dealer told her, business students have to abandon their models as mere “bullshit” precisely because “there are too many unpredictable variables.” Instead, that source noted, an investor must be adept at “playing in the grey”—i.e., operating in the vast area that lies between legal and illegal economic activity and all too often strays into the criminal. The gray zone harbors a massive network of enablers and go-betweens who perform such essential tasks as laundering money and helping investors avoid paying taxes. The result is the titular “spiderweb capitalism,” in which “most capital accumulation takes off through a set of transactions that are often considered corrupt and dirty.” Of course, spiderwebs are designed to trap prey, and the prey in question are ordinary taxpayers and law-abiding citizens. Close to the center of the web are the ultrawealthy, surrounded by concentric rings of “fixers” who attend to their needs for a surprisingly small portion of the proceeds, selling themselves cheap. Often, these are financial insiders who do such useful things as disguising the location of their beneficiaries, since, as Hoang notes, “offshore funds and banks are less likely to do business with anyone who has a US mailing address or passport” because of comparatively stringent U.S. tax laws. In this well-written study, Hoang shows how inequality is a direct consequence of this spiderweb capitalism, which constitutes a zero-sum game in which drug cartels, organized crime, and the superrich are indistinguishable.
A work of true crime as much as scholarship, highly readable and maddening.
