Everybody Loves Our Dollars - How Money Laundering Won

‘Utterly fascinating – like being given X-ray glasses to see the real world’ MARINA HYDE

Oliver Bullough author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Orion Publishing Co

Published:29th Jan '26

Should be back in stock very soon

Everybody Loves Our Dollars - How Money Laundering Won cover

From the bestselling author of MONEYLAND and BUTLER TO THE WORLD, a revelatory new anatomy of global money laundering, the crime that makes crime pay

Without money laundering, few crimes of acquisition would be worth the trouble. South America's drug cartels would be stuffed without it, as would Nigerian kleptocrats, Afghan terrorists, American tax evaders and a whole bestiary of human (and animal) traffickers the world over.

And yet, estimates of the dirty portion of world GDP have held steady at 2%-5% for decades. All efforts at legislation, diplomacy, prosecution and compliance have been a complete flop. It's not a lack of will to stamp it out. It's a lack of insight. So join bestselling investigative journalist Oliver Bullough on a perspective-altering adventure through the flipside of the global economy.

In the criminal world, cash is still king (in fact, crime might now be the main thing cash is good for, and even why it still exists). Barter is pretty good too: vast, continent-wide exchanges of everything from luxury handbags to baby eels support a triangular drug trade linking Europe to the Far East. Cryptocurrencies flow through paper ledgers that would make a Florentine merchant feel at home.

And the system works. Whether you're a fraudster, a cartel boss, a corrupt politician, a kleptocrat or a terrorist mastermind, your options to move and hide your money are more secure and more impenetrable than they have ever been. There has never been a better time to be a criminal. It's time that changed.

Should be required reading for every politician, regulator and board member with an interest in the financial services industry . . . Such an important book * FINANCIAL TIMES *
A jaw-dropping exposé . . . Bullough is one of Britain's finest investigative reporters. He is thorough, his sources are impressive, and he has a lovely, easy style which takes us through some of the darkest features of the world's economy. He also has a fine sense of moral purpose . . . He seems to be completely without fear -- JOHN SIMPSON * GUARDIAN *
I've been writing about the global financial system for thirtyyears, but reading this revelatory book by Oliver Bullough, I now realise I barely knew the half of it -- SIMON NIXON * Literary Review *
It's not just that Oliver Bullough possesses a kind of x-ray vision, enabling him to perceive all the malignant stuff coursing just beneath the surface of our economic and political systems; he is also a gifted storyteller, who can unpick the most fiendishly complex grift so that it becomes not just explicable but perversely entertaining. Everybody Loves Our Dollars is Bullough at his nimble, companionable, panoramic best, tracing vast amounts of dirty money as it flits around the planet - and in and out of our own pockets -- PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, author of EMPIRE OF PAIN
One of the very few people who not only understand the convoluted world of money laundering, but are also able to explain it in clear and elegant prose -- ANNE APPLEBAUM, author of AUTOCRACY, INC.
Utterly fascinating - like being given X-ray glasses to see the real world. Oliver Bullough should be a national treasure -- MARINA HYDE, host, THE REST IS ENTERTAINMENT
The truth hurts and this stings. Insightful and accurate -- DAVID LEWIS, former executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force
A vital must-read book. Bullough's latest exposé rails against the hypocritical box-ticking of a compliance culture that utterly fails to rein in money laundering and targets poorer nations, while allowing financial crime to flourish in London and New York. A call to action against the whitecollar bankers and lawyers who feed off the crimes targeting the world's weakest -- CATHERINE BELTON, author of PUTIN'S PEOPLE
This is a blistering account of our failure to stop dirty money. Oliver Bullough has figured out what some of the world's most powerful people don't want us to know - how they keep their filthy billions secret. He exposes the hypocrisy and cynicism of decades of western policy. If you want to know why the kleptocrats, the human traffickers, the terrorists and the grifters are winning, read this book now -- TOM BURGIS, author of KLEPTOPIA
Bullough has done it again. Having explained how the world's top goons and gangsters run their finances, he now lays bare why our attempts to stop them are not just ineffective and but scandalously unfair. Box-ticking and bullying, hype and hypocrisy - his verdict on the supposed custodians of our system's integrity is scathing. Packed with anecdotes and insights, this book should be on every decision-maker's desk -- EDWARD LUCAS, author of THE NEW COLD WAR
Our leading expert on dirty money exposes the secret networks that power the international economy of crime. Lucid, funny and compelling, Bullough may know more about money laundering than the criminals themselves -- ZEKE FAUX, author of NUMBER GO UP
Bullough has a remarkable gift of making you laugh - and then making you shout with outrage at the financial crime ravaging our lives -- PETER POMERANTSEV, author of HOW TO WIN AN INFORMATION WAR
Brilliant. An adrenalised tour of the world's dirty money hotspots. Should be slipped into the red box of every minister -- BEN STEWART, co-founder, Led By Donkeys

ISBN: 9781399618090

Dimensions: 232mm x 162mm x 34mm

Weight: 540g

336 pages