World for Sale

<strong>The modern world is built on commodities - from the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones.</strong> <p/>We rarely stop to consider where they have come from. But we should. <p/>In <em>The World for Sale</em> two leading journalists lift the lid on one of the least scrutinised corners of the world economy: the workings of the billionaire commodity traders who buy hoard and sell the earth's resources. <p/>It is the story of how a handful of swashbuckling businessmen became indispensable cogs in global markets: enabling an enormous expansion in international trade and connecting resource-rich countries - no matter how corrupt or war-torn - with the world's financial centres. <p/>And it is the story of how some traders acquired untold political power right under the noses of western regulators and politicians - helping Saddam Hussein to sell his oil fuelling the Libyan rebel army during the Arab Spring and funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin in spite of western sanctions. <p/>The result is an eye-opening tour through the wildest frontiers of the global economy as well as a revelatory guide to how capitalism really works.<br>