by Kate Kelly
First published 2014
Kate Kelly exposes the commodities trading world where financiers bet on oil, gold, and corn futures from banking towers. She focuses on key players including Pierre Andurand, the hedge fund manager who achieved record oil trading profits in 2008, and Ivan Glasenberg, who runs the secretive Swiss giant Glencore. These highly educated risk takers control vast wealth with minimal oversight, wielding power that can benefit or harm global economies. Kelly documents how these traders shape the markets for raw materials that drive economic activity. She also examines the Obama Administration's unsuccessful attempts to regulate these financial cowboys. The book reveals how immense power concentrates in the hands of a select few commodities traders who operate largely beyond public scrutiny.
Genres: business, politics, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, finance
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-access, investigative-reporting
Setting: Banking Towers, Switzerland, United States
Period: 2008, Obama Administration
288 pages · Hardcover · Portfolio