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Crack-Up Capitalism

Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy

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Crack-Up Capitalism

By: Quinn Slobodian
Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Look at a map of the world and you'll see a neat patchwork of nation-states. But this is not where power actually resides. From the 1990s onwards, globalization has shattered the map, leading to an explosion of new legal entities: tax havens, free ports, city-states, gated enclaves and special economic zones. These new spaces are freed from ordinary forms of regulation, taxation and mutual obligation—and with them, ultracapitalists believe that it is possible to escape the bonds of democratic government and oversight altogether.

Historian Quinn Slobodian follows the most notorious radical libertarians—from Milton Friedman to Peter Thiel—around the globe as they search for the perfect home for their free market fantasy. The hunt leads from Hong Kong in the 1970s to South Africa in the late days of apartheid, from the neo-Confederate South to the medieval City of London, and finally into the world's oceans and war zones, charting the relentless quest for a blank slate where capitalism and democracy can be finally uncoupled.

Crack-Up Capitalism is a propulsive history of the recent past, and an alarming view of our near future.

©2023 Quinn Slobodian (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Economic History Economics Politics & Government Theory Capitalism Africa China Imperialism Socialism Taxation Economic disparity Latin American Economic Inequality

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Critic reviews

"Ranging from Liechtenstein to Somalia, and from Hong Kong to Silicon Valley, Quinn Slobodian's Crack-Up Capitalism exposes how zones of exception promise capitalism an escape from the confines of the modern state and the constraints of democracy. Revelatory reading. A worthy successor to Slobodian's brilliant Globalists." (Adam Tooze, author of Crashed)

"Excellent... A new generation of swashbuckling billionaires entertain the prospect of secession, using their money to realize fantasies of escape, whether through seasteading or spaceships." (Jennifer Szalai)

"Slobodian has written a fascinating account of the sheer hubris of the market radicals who have sought to free capitalism from democracy first by transforming the world's political geography and now by abandoning the material world. He tells this important story with verve and considerable insight." (Helen Thompson)

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Amazing tour through the mind palace of the kind of people who see themselves as "high IQ sovereign citizens" and the rest as a placid, bovine "workforce" 5/5

Wonderful

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Slobodian continues the great work he began with ‘Masters of the Universe’, looking at the historical implications of neoliberalism.

A great historian of neoliberalism

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I have always thought Capitalism is the most successful of all political systems and it even trumps religion in some aspect with worldwide followers. Money money & money….
This book however explained well Capitalism is beginning to some so cracks and badly needed some updates. If it doesn’t, it will starts to lose us influence or able to motivate people to do anything for more.
Interesting read and I would have enjoy reading it as much as listening to it. The narrative is very good too.
Highly recommended!

Very interesting revealing the weakness of Capitalism

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