The Shadow Market How A Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate The World By Eric J. Wiener

The Shadow Market How A Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate The World By Eric J. Wiener

This book explains the flow of global capital away from the United States and Europe.  It gives many reasons why Europe and the United States currently are not growing and are in a recession.  The book describes how China, the Middle East, India, Brazil, and Russia are growing at an accelerated pace.  It also describes how Norway has an outsized impact on global markets because of its oil fueled sovereign wealth fund.

We learn how private equity and hedge funds which have little or no oversite are moving capital away from the United States into areas where there is more opportunity for growth.  There is no longer any responsibility to the country they operate in.  The goal is to generate as much wealth as possible irregardless of where the wealth is coming from.

At the same time countries are creating investment pools called Sovereign Wealth Funds which use their capital to invest as a country.  China, Norway, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates are some of the countries which have created these funds.  They are often used to buy up land, commodities, and oil which the countries need to operate.  In combination with government control of currency in places like China and Brazil, they create artificial markets where labor and capital is cheaper than in free markets.

Sovereign Wealth Funds are used to buy technology, commodities, oil, infrastructure, and development.  They are sources for national capital not individual investors.  This is a different kind of investing than the United States uses in the stock markest.


Not all of this is beneficial, many countries with Sovereign Wealth Funds use their money and oil for ends that are not beneficial to other countries.  The author uses the example of Libya, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates as possible places which fund terror.  He also describes how wealth is often used as a tool to push past human rights.

He also describes how the United States in its weakened condition is turning to more outside investment.  The United States is increasingly encouraging foreign investment onto our shores. http://www.investamerica.gov/  It reminds me very much of how our multinationals once invested in South American countries.

I found the book to be informative and alarmist.  It explained how the United States and Europe were losing their economic competitiveness.  I think it is a wake up call.  It reminds us that we cannot turn to the usual answers, but instead need to innovate, create new technology and ideas and put people back to work.  It showed how the Middle East, China, Russia, Venezuela, Norway, and other countries are using their wealth on a national level to change the commercial playing field.  It was well worth reading.

Daily Thoughts 10/6/2010 (The Shadow Market, Blood Beats in Four Square Miles)

Suzuki Harunobu (1724–1770), A Woman Writing, ca 1764-1768, Woodblock Print, Brooklyn Museum

Daily Thoughts 10/6/2010

I read some more of The Shadow Market this morning.  There is a quite a bit about China in there as well as Sovereign Country Funds which are national investment funds.  The author also talks about how the United Arab Emirates is heavily invested in international stocks.  There are a lot of descriptions of how emerging markets are slowly catching up to the United States and Europe.  This article feels very much like the book I am reading.  Strength in emerging economies raises trade fears  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Strength-in-emerging-apf-1692293747.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
We got a donation for Blood Beats In Four Square Miles, edited by James Fair today which is a collection of poetry by local poets.



Also, the book, The Monstrumulogist came in by Rick Yancey.  It has a very long award list in the front, Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Yalsa Best Book For Young Adults, Booklist Editors' Choice For Youth, Florida Book Award, Silver Medal, and Kids' Indie Next List.

There was an interesting book on a fascinating new technology, vertical farms that I am very interested in reading.  The Vertical Farm: Feeding Ourselves and the World in the 21st Century by Dickson Despommier.

Daily Thoughts 10/5/2010 (The Glamour of Grammar, The Shadow Market, Acquisitions)

Leander Engström Girl with book

Daily Thoughts 10/5/2010

I read some more of The Glamour of Grammar this morning on the train in to work.  There was a nice pun about the difference between lie, lay, and lei.  The book, The Shadow Market How A Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate the World by Eric J. Weiner just came in for me to read this morning.




I checked the displays to see that they were in order, checked on BWI to see how the on order status was going in, and did a little bit of weeding in the oversize 300s.  I like to work steadily and slowly on projects until they are done.




The notification that my class from ALCTS Fundamentals of Acquisitions came in my email today.  I am registered and ready to start the class.  It should be quite interesting to do.  There are four online sessions and five modules.

A book came in for me to read this afternoon, Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson.

I spent the afternoon getting my orders ready for the order meeting.  A book caught my attention which should be very interesting;  Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris.  It is a collection of animal stories for adults.  This is a trailer about the book.



I finished reading The Glamour of Grammar on the way home.  The book is about being immersed in the language.  It makes grammar enjoyable. This is a hard thing to do.  The book was good enough that it made me want to read Roy Peter Clark's other book Writing Tools.

Have started reading The Shadow Market.  I don't buy into the conspiratorial tone in the book.  I think that people simply aren't paying enough attention.  The book describes the rise of private equity and hedge funds.  It also describes how countries are creating their own trading funds to control global currency.  There are descriptions of how China will have a larger economy than the United States by 2030, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have formed a trading partnership, and the G7 trading partnership has now become the G20.  The world is changing.  The details are interesting.  I am not sure that the perspective in the book is that accurate though.