The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast, Pluto Press, 2002

Greg Palast is a nationally known investigative reporter. Unfortunately, the nation in which he is known is England, not America (Palast is an American). This book consists of  mostly previously published pieces on a variety of subjects.

The state of Florida threw over 57,000 people off its voting rolls, the official reason being that they were convicted felons. For many, their only crime was being black and/or Democratic. The lists to be used by county election officials were found to be full of flaws, and just happened to come from a company with strong Republican ties. Some counties tried to send letters to the people on the list, to give them a chance to appeal the deletion; other counties didn't bother. There are a number of instances where Florida officials didn't make even the minimum effort to be sure of the names on the list.

When a country is in financial trouble, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are supposed to be there to help. In many cases, they are part of the problem. Countries are given a list of over 100 economic conditions that must be met before any loan money starts flowing. They include things like removing trade barriers to let in cheaper (usually American) goods and disrupt the local economy, privatizing state assets, cutting social spending and crushing labor unions. It's a recipe for disaster, which is usually what happens. The current economic problems in Argentina and Brazil, for example, can be partially blamed on the IMF/WB. It is possible to thrive without them; the country of Botswana said No to their conditions, and they are economically quite healthy.

Conventional wisdom says that the Exxon Valdez oil spill was the fault of one drunk captain. There is plenty of evidence of lack of proper equipment, doctored safety records, and cheating of the local natives. That's only the beginning.

Wow. Investigative reporting like this hasn't been seen in America in many years. No major media outlet is willing to expend the time and effort needed, and that's a shame. This book is brilliant, it's incredible, it shows just how wimpy most of the American news media really is, and I can't recommend it highly enough.