Sabotage: The Business of Finance

Two leading political scientists show why the financial sector is an 'industry of sabotage', with systemic malpractice at the heart of its business model Financial malpractice, we're told, is an aberration- the actions of a few bad apples gaming the system. In Sabotage, political scientists Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen Palan blow this fiction apart, showing that sabotage is not an anomaly, but part of the business model of finance - and always has been. Misleading investors, falsifying figures and taking advantage of 'the dumbest person in the room' - they're actually the surest way to a bonus. If you want to make money in the industry, you need to sabotage either your clients, your competitors or the government (or all three). Talking to industry insiders, economists and high net worth customers, the authors show us how the idea of sabotage not only makes sense of all past economic crises, but must also be at the heart of all future regulations.

Anastasia Nesvetailova is the Director of the City Political Economy Research Centre and author of numerous academic and media articles on financial crises and stability. She teaches at City University, London. Ronen Palan is Professor of International Political Economy at City University, London. He has written extensively on the political economy of the state and globalization, as well as specializing in offshore finance.