Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy [Hardcover]

R. T. Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002

Outraged by recent encroachments on citizens' rights that have been justified by claims that new and more restrictive laws will combat the ravages of international crime, Naylor contends that no police campaign that fails to address the demand for illegal goods and services has ever succeeded. He supports this claim with detailed - and often entertaining - accounts of past criminal operations and law enforcement's attempts to stop them. Wages of Crime makes a persuasive case for the need to address the underlying economic and political factors that encourage criminal enterprises rather than relying on restrictive laws.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

R.T. Naylor is professor, economics, McGill University, and the author of many books, including Economic Warfare: Sanctions, Embargo Busting, and Their Human Cost, and Bankers, Bagmen, and Bandits: Business and Politics in the Age of Greed.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801439493
• ISBN-13: 978-0801439490
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #947,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A better understanding of Black Markets than regulators have, January 10, 2006

By 

Temple A. Allen (Laredo, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wages of Crime: Black Markets Illegal Finance and the Underworld Economy (Hardcover)

R.T. Naylor has a better understanding of illicit markets, than most regulators have. He has obviously done extensive research, on the mechanics of money laundering for example, and knows the legitimate banking system, as well as the underground financial system. I suspect his thesis that organized crime is a myth, may be quite controversial. Nonetheless, he backs up his statements with convincing arguments. The only reason, I did not rate this book 5 stars, is that he slips in his political viewpoints, that are decidedly left of center. As an example, when speaking of Republican congressman Henry Hyde's attempt to reform how banks report questionable transactions to the government, he states, "And for a time, Representative Hyde shifted his energies to more pressing matters, leading the abortive move to impeach Bill Clinton-not because Clinton had gutted the social welfare system, capitulated to the medical establishment on health care, or committed mass murder in Iraq but because of his idiosyncratic taste in custom flavored cigars". (pp.277)These types of gratuitous statements, while rare in this book, take away some of the force of the dilemma most Western countries face in dealing with an underground economy. Still, this is an excellent book, that reads like a college textbook, with priceless insights on offshore banking, money laundering, the underworld gold economy, crime control, and other topics. I strongly suggest this book, as a social commentary of the black market and undergorund economy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars cornell press, June 10, 2007

By 

Mr. Christopher W. Gullett "guhlitz" (newport beach) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wages Of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, And The Underworld Economy (Paperback)

Multi faceted and objective look at the underworld economy.
Many statitistics and and overwhelming amount of detailed historical
information. Some sources not sited in what could appear to be
biased editorializations, but these observations are few and far in
between. All in all a great overview.

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much politics with the economics, August 22, 2009

By 

M. Binfield (Maryland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wages Of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, And The Underworld Economy (Paperback)

This book was a bit disappointing. One issue was a deficit in theoretical foundation and analysis. Some sections did include a theoretical framework: for example, the chapter on insurgency finance divides insurgencies into several stages, with different funding methods available at different stages. But large sections of the book consist of interesting anecdotes, culled mostly from newspaper stories, and tied together by Naylor's opinions, assertions, and explanations. Where he does present any theoretical framework, he generally credits it to someone else.

As others here have mentioned, Naylor's political views are on full display, to the extent of inserting gratuitous jabs that have nothing to do with illicit finance, or in some cases even with economics. The breeziness with which he makes bold un-cited statements calls into question the overall quality of his scholarship. He takes others to task for putting too much confidence in facts and statistics about criminal markets, since the true extent of those markets and the secretive organizations that service them are inherently unknowable. This is a perfectly good point. Yet Naylor makes bald assertions about the role of intelligence agencies in the worldwide underworld, with no hint of how he gained such understanding of these equally secretive organizations.

Overall there must be better books on this subject, but while reading this one wasn't especially pleasant, it wasn't a waste of my time either. The anecdotes are interesting, there is a fair amount of general explanation, and I'm now confident that I'll never need to look up money laundering in a dictionary.