Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

“There is a deep contradiction between the belief that we are free and the reality of living under capitalism,” according to this fiery treatise. Blakeley (The Corona Crash), a staff writer at Tribune magazine, argues that contrary to free market doctrine, capitalist economies rely on planning by bankers, large companies, and states. The capitalist imperative of constant growth leads big businesses to become monopolies that wield their power to circumvent market dynamics, Blakeley contends, noting how Amazon artificially depresses workers’ wages by dominating regional economies in which residents have few other employment options. Successful businesses can even rival state power, as when in the early 1900s the United Fruit Company, whose banana plantations were based in Guatemala, assumed control of the country’s postal service and propped up the presidential candidacy of autocrat Jorge Ubico, who “handed over tracts of land to the UFC” once in power. Blakeley makes a persuasive case that “corporations are political institutions” unaccountable to the employees, customers, and community members most affected by their decisions, and she details fascinating experiments that show what alternatives might look like (in the 1980s, a small Andalusian village won collective control of local land and continue to make decisions as a group about how to use it and what to do with the profits it generates). Impassioned and provocative, this will challenge readers’ understanding of the fundamental forces that govern economic markets. Agent: Chris Wellbelove, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Mar.)

Correction: The author’s last name was misspelled in an earlier version of this review.