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Profits of Doom: How Vulture Capitalism is Swallowing the World
Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres, mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar.
Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, outsourced aid, destructive resource wars and militarized private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world? Profits of Doom challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it.
Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, outsourced aid, destructive resource wars and militarized private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world? Profits of Doom challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it.
261 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2013
9 people are currently reading
364 people want to read
About the author
Antony Loewenstein
14 books237 followersAntony Loewenstein is an independent journalist, best-selling author, filmmaker and co-founder of Declassified Australia. He's written for The Guardian, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and many others. His books include The Palestine Laboratory, Pills, Powder and Smoke, Disaster Capitalism and My Israel Question. His documentary films include Disaster Capitalism and the Al Jazeera English films West Africa's Opioid Crisis and Under the Cover of Covid. He was based in East Jerusalem 2016-2020.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 2, 2013
This book takes some of the theses of the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and applies them to Australia, where, as in the United States, even the prisons have been privatized, but certainly this has not improved the lives of residents. According to the author the privatization of certain sectors such as security, put almost everything in the hands of private companies and it may explain why they fight more and more wars. In the theory, which I reproduce verbatim, the author explains that the strategy may vary from country to country, but the purpose is always the same: exaggerate a threat (human or natural) and let private companies exploit it, making sure that lasts as long as possible, when the country where this has happened is now devoid of any resource, move to the next country.
Questo libro riprende alcune delle tesi di Naomi Klein sulla Shock Economy e le applica all'Australia, dove, come negli Stati Uniti, anche le prigioni sono state privatizzate, ma certo questo non ha migliorato la vita dei residenti. Secondo l'autore la privatizzazione di alcuni settori come quello della sicurezza, ormai quasi tutto in mano ad aziende private, potrebbe spiegare come mai si combattono sempre piú guerre. La teoria dell'autore che riporto verbatim spiega come la strategia possa variare da paese a paese, ma lo scopo é sempre quello: esagerate una minaccia (umana o naturale) e lasciate che le aziende private la rendano un pericolo straordinario, facendo in modo che durino il piú a lungo possibile, quando il paese dove questo é accaduto é ormai privo di ogni risorsa, spostatevi al paese successivo.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING FOR THE PREVIEW!
Questo libro riprende alcune delle tesi di Naomi Klein sulla Shock Economy e le applica all'Australia, dove, come negli Stati Uniti, anche le prigioni sono state privatizzate, ma certo questo non ha migliorato la vita dei residenti. Secondo l'autore la privatizzazione di alcuni settori come quello della sicurezza, ormai quasi tutto in mano ad aziende private, potrebbe spiegare come mai si combattono sempre piú guerre. La teoria dell'autore che riporto verbatim spiega come la strategia possa variare da paese a paese, ma lo scopo é sempre quello: esagerate una minaccia (umana o naturale) e lasciate che le aziende private la rendano un pericolo straordinario, facendo in modo che durino il piú a lungo possibile, quando il paese dove questo é accaduto é ormai privo di ogni risorsa, spostatevi al paese successivo.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING FOR THE PREVIEW!
September 27, 2013
Describes Australia's complicated relationship with Papua New Guinea as a "client state", where the client's resources are extracted for the profit of foreigners to the detriment of the actual owners. One fact that stuck with me was that of the $500 million that PNG receives in aid from Australia, 50% of that goes to the wages of Australian "consultants", and that is before the endemic corruption takes more.
There is also chapters on the rise of the modern mercenary, under the acronym "PMC", and how vertical integration and the Cost+ policy diverted any money spent in Afghanistan into the pockets of wealthy foreigners.
There is also chapters on the rise of the modern mercenary, under the acronym "PMC", and how vertical integration and the Cost+ policy diverted any money spent in Afghanistan into the pockets of wealthy foreigners.
October 22, 2017
This is an alarming book and the kind of investigative journalism we so rarely see in newspapers. Lowenstein travels the world uncovering “vulture capitalism” and the truth is so horrendous that I had to read one chapter at a time, taking breaks in between to read other things.
While there is attempt to give advice and hope towards the end, it seems too little too late. Read this and then Postcapitalism by Paul Mason to see other ways.
While there is attempt to give advice and hope towards the end, it seems too little too late. Read this and then Postcapitalism by Paul Mason to see other ways.
June 1, 2021
A strong work that in plain language explains how corporation have become more powerful than people. Recommended.
January 30, 2014
*Cross-posted on http://literaryminded.com.au
In Profits of Doom, Antony Loewenstein investigates the effects of predatory, vulture or disaster capitalism on individuals, communities, the environment, and future prospects of entire countries. Loewenstein’s work is powerful because he goes to Afghanistan, Christmas Island, Papua New Guinea, and other places ravaged by greed, corruption, complacency, and misdirected aid. He takes us there, and he talks to people at all levels, unafraid to present us with opinions that contradict his own (though reinforcing his own argument effortlessly through the picture he paints of the damage done).
In Australia, he visits detention centres, exploring the effects (on the detainees, the staff, and the wider community) of privatisation, revealing the fact that companies with dodgy track records are still given contracts. To avoid fines, there is also a culture of dishonesty: ‘… cover-ups of breaches [such as incidences of abuse] are routine and both tolerated and implicitly supported by the highest echelons of the Serco [company] hierarchy’. Loewenstein discovers a general ignorance of asylum seekers’ rights in order to maximise profits (ie. drawn-out processing times), and a dehumanisation of asylum seekers who, at the top, are referred to as ‘products’.
In Papua New Guinea Loewenstein visits ‘an abandoned wasteland’, Bouganville, where there are talks to reopen the mine which caused so much strife and continues to effect the environment. Disaster capitalism, as Loewenstein describes it in regards to PNG, is predatory corporations supported by foreign aid payments and tax concessions, insulated from media and political scrutiny, preventing a country from reaching true independence. In another village, Loewenstein hears of women selling their bodies for food because the company that has moved in has stopped them from fishing.
In Afghanistan Loewenstein looks at the local war economy, investigating private security personnel—their role in the conflict, how the officials see it and how the locals do.
In Haiti Loewenstein finds large parts of the capital Port-au-Prince still in pieces after the 2010 earthquake, and provides many examples of ‘canny capitalists sifting through the ashes of disaster, looking for business opportunities’. For those who argue in favour of job creation when multinationals move in, Loewenstein has found that it’s more likely that cheap, exploitative labour is the effect, in vulnerable areas, tying locals to an (often restricting, often polluting) corporation, removing other chances of sustainable growth in a community.
Loewenstein uncovered an unfortunate structural failure where many big NGOs (not all, there are some great examples of on-the-ground charities working with locals in the book) act as conduits to ensure Western business interests.
Profits of Doom provides essential, eye-opening information about systems of exploitative capitalism, how they operate, who profits, and the effects on the ground. It’s written in an accessible, engaging style, with quotes from people at all levels, and Loewenstein’s first-hand observations and experiences. I was a big fan of his 2008 book The Blogging Revolution, and will continue to read the work of a journalist whose concerns are undeniably relevant, who investigates and presents cases with care, rigour, and verve.
In Profits of Doom, Antony Loewenstein investigates the effects of predatory, vulture or disaster capitalism on individuals, communities, the environment, and future prospects of entire countries. Loewenstein’s work is powerful because he goes to Afghanistan, Christmas Island, Papua New Guinea, and other places ravaged by greed, corruption, complacency, and misdirected aid. He takes us there, and he talks to people at all levels, unafraid to present us with opinions that contradict his own (though reinforcing his own argument effortlessly through the picture he paints of the damage done).
In Australia, he visits detention centres, exploring the effects (on the detainees, the staff, and the wider community) of privatisation, revealing the fact that companies with dodgy track records are still given contracts. To avoid fines, there is also a culture of dishonesty: ‘… cover-ups of breaches [such as incidences of abuse] are routine and both tolerated and implicitly supported by the highest echelons of the Serco [company] hierarchy’. Loewenstein discovers a general ignorance of asylum seekers’ rights in order to maximise profits (ie. drawn-out processing times), and a dehumanisation of asylum seekers who, at the top, are referred to as ‘products’.
In Papua New Guinea Loewenstein visits ‘an abandoned wasteland’, Bouganville, where there are talks to reopen the mine which caused so much strife and continues to effect the environment. Disaster capitalism, as Loewenstein describes it in regards to PNG, is predatory corporations supported by foreign aid payments and tax concessions, insulated from media and political scrutiny, preventing a country from reaching true independence. In another village, Loewenstein hears of women selling their bodies for food because the company that has moved in has stopped them from fishing.
In Afghanistan Loewenstein looks at the local war economy, investigating private security personnel—their role in the conflict, how the officials see it and how the locals do.
In Haiti Loewenstein finds large parts of the capital Port-au-Prince still in pieces after the 2010 earthquake, and provides many examples of ‘canny capitalists sifting through the ashes of disaster, looking for business opportunities’. For those who argue in favour of job creation when multinationals move in, Loewenstein has found that it’s more likely that cheap, exploitative labour is the effect, in vulnerable areas, tying locals to an (often restricting, often polluting) corporation, removing other chances of sustainable growth in a community.
Loewenstein uncovered an unfortunate structural failure where many big NGOs (not all, there are some great examples of on-the-ground charities working with locals in the book) act as conduits to ensure Western business interests.
Profits of Doom provides essential, eye-opening information about systems of exploitative capitalism, how they operate, who profits, and the effects on the ground. It’s written in an accessible, engaging style, with quotes from people at all levels, and Loewenstein’s first-hand observations and experiences. I was a big fan of his 2008 book The Blogging Revolution, and will continue to read the work of a journalist whose concerns are undeniably relevant, who investigates and presents cases with care, rigour, and verve.
April 19, 2014
A condemnation of predatory capitalism, this collection of essays follows the path trodden by Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Generally the analysis is perceptive and the examples apposite, although occasionally the argument overreaches, or abstracts itself from larger debates.
Loewenstein opens with a scathing analysis of Australia's privatised network of onshore and offshore "detention centres" for asylum seekers. Secret and lucrative contracts with private contractors help remove these remote facilities from media and public scrutiny and, hence, provide a distancing of Government from accountability. The mental, emotional and physical toll of long-term detention in these centres is mentioned as the human cost, but here I felt that more attention should have been paid both to these human stories and to the larger social/political debate in which the "logic" of mandatory detention for people who have committed no crime has become entrenched in Australia – a process that has been underway for two decades.
Loewenstein ably examines the way the collaboration of Governments and resource industries – particularly mining - often ignores social and environmental concern and actively (and occasionally violently) excludes concerned or dissenting community voices in decision-making. The chapters on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Haiti seem very much of a piece with Klein's picture of disaster capitalism.
He records that on many occasions during his travel and the writing of the book, he felt "Helpless, overwhelmed by the stories put before me... [and] struck by how often people reported feeling like slaves to an economic system over which they had no control." Outrage, of course, is a fuel for change, but the book does no more than allude to this, and while it hints at a vision of how things could be different, it doesn't articulate this vision in detail, nor map any of the steps that would be involved in bringing the vision to life.
Loewenstein opens with a scathing analysis of Australia's privatised network of onshore and offshore "detention centres" for asylum seekers. Secret and lucrative contracts with private contractors help remove these remote facilities from media and public scrutiny and, hence, provide a distancing of Government from accountability. The mental, emotional and physical toll of long-term detention in these centres is mentioned as the human cost, but here I felt that more attention should have been paid both to these human stories and to the larger social/political debate in which the "logic" of mandatory detention for people who have committed no crime has become entrenched in Australia – a process that has been underway for two decades.
Loewenstein ably examines the way the collaboration of Governments and resource industries – particularly mining - often ignores social and environmental concern and actively (and occasionally violently) excludes concerned or dissenting community voices in decision-making. The chapters on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Haiti seem very much of a piece with Klein's picture of disaster capitalism.
He records that on many occasions during his travel and the writing of the book, he felt "Helpless, overwhelmed by the stories put before me... [and] struck by how often people reported feeling like slaves to an economic system over which they had no control." Outrage, of course, is a fuel for change, but the book does no more than allude to this, and while it hints at a vision of how things could be different, it doesn't articulate this vision in detail, nor map any of the steps that would be involved in bringing the vision to life.
December 1, 2016
(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)
Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres. Mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations are invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar.
Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, the cost of cheap clothing manufacturing and militarised private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world?
Profits of Doom challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it.
I am not really sure I have the words to accurately sum up this book - there are so many important messages here that covering them all would be impossible. Let's just look at the main highlights:
The costs and hidden stories behind Australia's detention centres;
Bouganville, in Papua New Guinea, is looking at re-opening a mine that caused untold damage financially and socially;
Afghanistan and the local law (and war) makers and their roles in the changing face of the country;
The predatory practices of businesses in the Haiti capital Port-au-Prince following the 2010 earthquake.
The author's approach to telling these stories is blunt and straight-forward, and I appreciated that. Sometimes there is bias in books like these but I didn't find one here...
An important read and one that I recommend!
Paul
ARH
Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres. Mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations are invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar.
Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, the cost of cheap clothing manufacturing and militarised private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world?
Profits of Doom challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it.
I am not really sure I have the words to accurately sum up this book - there are so many important messages here that covering them all would be impossible. Let's just look at the main highlights:
The costs and hidden stories behind Australia's detention centres;
Bouganville, in Papua New Guinea, is looking at re-opening a mine that caused untold damage financially and socially;
Afghanistan and the local law (and war) makers and their roles in the changing face of the country;
The predatory practices of businesses in the Haiti capital Port-au-Prince following the 2010 earthquake.
The author's approach to telling these stories is blunt and straight-forward, and I appreciated that. Sometimes there is bias in books like these but I didn't find one here...
An important read and one that I recommend!
Paul
ARH
June 1, 2015
I essence these are a few of the books themes: Private prisons do not save money. In the USA private prisons hold the healthier and therefore cheaper inmates – the rest are sent to public system.
Deficit panic is used to cut back government spending. Privatisation is usually enforced before victims of disasters can regroup and get what they really need. (Compare, Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine).
The War on Terror was promoted as a business opportunity. Capitalism.
The Shock Doctrine is used in the Climate Crisis, by both a rogue fossil fuel industry and by companies promoting themselves as the only solution.
As John Pilger observed in his book Heroes: Heroes the developing world are mostly portrayed as demons and victims.
A disaster will be followed by calls for reform. Remember the 2011 earthquake? Reform meant a free hand for business.
Deficit panic is used to cut back government spending. Privatisation is usually enforced before victims of disasters can regroup and get what they really need. (Compare, Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine).
The War on Terror was promoted as a business opportunity. Capitalism.
The Shock Doctrine is used in the Climate Crisis, by both a rogue fossil fuel industry and by companies promoting themselves as the only solution.
As John Pilger observed in his book Heroes: Heroes the developing world are mostly portrayed as demons and victims.
A disaster will be followed by calls for reform. Remember the 2011 earthquake? Reform meant a free hand for business.
Want to Read
January 14, 2025I haven't read the damn book but it keeps saying I already read it, wtf?
January 23, 2015
** 3.5 **
December 30, 2020
well-researched with a good span of worrying examples; everyone should read this clarion call
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews