Narconomics
Books | Business & Economics / Industries / General
4.3
(63)
Tom Wainwright
Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Tom Wainwright provides a “a lively and engaging book, informed by both dogged reporting and gleanings from academic research” (The Washington Post) How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the 300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola. And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might better understand how they work—and stop throwing away 100 billion a year in a futile effort to win the “war” against this global, highly organized business. Your intrepid guide to the most exotic and brutal industry on earth is Tom Wainwright. Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers. The cast of characters includes “Bin Laden,” the Bolivian coca guide; “Old Lin,” the Salvadoran gang leader; “Starboy,” the millionaire New Zealand pill maker; and a cozy Mexican grandmother who cooks blueberry pancakes while plotting murder. Along with presidents, cops, and teenage hitmen, they explain such matters as the business purpose for head-to-toe tattoos, how gangs decide whether to compete or collude, and why cartels care a surprising amount about corporate social responsibility. More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them.
AD
Buy now:
More Details:
Author
Tom Wainwright
Pages
288
Publisher
PublicAffairs
Published Date
2016-02-23
ISBN
1610395840 9781610395847
Community ReviewsSee all
"Full review and highlights at <a href="https://books.max-nova.com/narconomics">https://books.max-nova.com/narconomics</a><br/><br/>"Narconomics" has been on my list for a while. Amazon recommended it to me after I bought "Dreamland" which is itself an excellent work of investigative journalism about the opioid epidemic. When I first decided to make my 2018 reading theme "Crime and Punishment", I knew that Wainwright's investigation of illegal drug economics was going to be a cornerstone book. And the former Economist correspondent delivers! Treating the global narcotics industry "as if it were a business like any other," Wainwright delves into how drug dealers have to deal with supply chains, HR issues, and digital disruption just like everyone else.<br/><br/>By dissecting the economics of the narcotics supply chain, Wainwright launches a devastating critique of the raw ingredients eradication policy that has been the cornerstone of much anti-drug warfare. Noting that the value of the raw materials is a thousandth of the ultimate retail value in the US, he concludes:<blockquote>by trebling the price of cocaine’s raw ingredient in South America —something no policy has yet gotten close to achieving — the best-case scenario is that cocaine’s retail price in the United States would rise by 0.6 percent. This does not seem like a good return on the billions of dollars invested in disrupting the supply of leaves in the Andes.</blockquote>His section on prisons being schools for gang members was also eye-opening. The level of "regulatory capture" by these gangs is despicable - Wainwright notes that Mexico's national "drug czar" had been bought and paid for by the Juárez cartel.<br/><br/>As I get deeper into my year of "Crime and Punishment," I'm beginning to believe that big pools of dark money are at the heart of many large-scale national and global problems. This idea began with the amazing "Power Broker" which describes how construction kinpin Robert Moses ran the patronage system in NYC for decades. "Treasure Islands" about offshore tax evasion and "The Looting Machine" about African natural resource economics further supported the idea that dark money rapidly corrodes good governance. Wainwright's book only further supports this idea with his analysis of how government prohibition funnels tens of billions of narco-dollars to violent cartels.<br/><br/>Wainwright convincingly argues that drug legalization would eliminate the pools of dark money that power cartel violence. He points to some steps towards legalization in the US and abroad, although "Chasing the Scream" does a much better job exploring the possibilities and consequences of legalization. For a heavily-researched fictionalized account of Mexican cartel dynamics, check out Don Winslow's excellent "The Power of the Dog"."
Max Nova
"Interesting to see the “war on drugs” from an economist perspective. Would have been interesting to read more on the opioid epidemic within this war and how the Cartels adapted to change in Pharmaceuticals policies"
Wesley Spence