Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores - Softcover

Palast, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452298644 ISBN 13: 9780452298644

Publisher: Plume, 2012

Synopsis

The New York Times bestselling author of Armed Madhouse offers a globetrotting, Sam Spade-style investigation that blows the lid off the oil industry, the banking industry, and the governmental agencies that aren't regulating either.

This is the story of the corporate vultures that feed on the weak and ruin our planet in the process-a story that spans the globe and decades.

For Vultures' Picnic, investigative journalist Greg Palast has spent his career uncovering the connection between the world of energy (read: oil) and finance. He's built a team that reads like a casting call for a Hollywood thriller-a Swiss multilingual investigator, a punk journalist, and a gonzo cameraman-to reveal how environmental disasters like the Gulf oil spill, the Exxon Valdez, and lesser-known tragedies such as Tatitlek and Torrey Canyon are caused by corporate corruption, failed legislation, and, most interestingly, veiled connections between the billionaires of financial industry and energy titans. Palast shows how the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and Central Banks act as puppets and bandits for Big Oil.

With Palast at the center of an investigation that takes us from the Arctic to Africa to the Amazon, Vultures' Picnic shows how the big powers in the money and oil game slip the bonds of regulation over and over again, and simply destroy the rules that they themselves can't write-and take advantage of nations and everyday people in the process.

About this title

About the Author:

GREG PALAST spent two decades investigating corporate fraud and racketeering before he turned his skills to journalism. Born in Los Angeles and a graduate of the University of Chicago, Palast currently lives in New York City.

Review:

It's a genuinely life-changing book - funny, pacy, intelligent and ultimately very moving. If you want to know how the world really works, read this. -- A. L. Kennedy * Daily Telegraph * It is a breath of fresh air - I read it in one sitting * Tribune * The real Sam Spade * Nation * Courageous reporting -- Michael Moore Palast's stories bite. They're so relevant they threaten to alter history. Palast is exactly what a journalist is supposed to be - a truth hound, doggedly independent, undaunted by power. * Chicago Tribune *

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0452298644
• ISBN 13: 9780452298644
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416