...[an] excoriating analysis of the City of London’s effect on our economy ... Coming seven years after [Shaxson's] groundbreaking Treasure Islands, which told the story of Britain’s tax havens, this new book broadens his assault on the foundations of the modern globalised financial system ... The Finance Curseis a radical, urgent and important manifesto for improving our country, starting from where Britain actually is – a wide-open, highly vulnerable economy utterly transformed by our finance industry – rather than where our major parties would like it to be, whether they’re harking back to the 1950s or to the 1890s. This argument should not really be party political, but it challenges the decades-long thrust of British politics, and winning it will require a hard fight. If we don’t want to go the way of the USSR, however, it’s a fight we need to have.

Nicholas Shaxson’s The Finance Curse may seem radical — and indeed some elements do have more than a whiff of the far left — but in fact his arguments are at base an expression of, and a plea for, moderation ... The thesis at the heart of this volume is simple, artfully presented, easily digested. It is not a jeremiad against capitalism or commerce. It is an argument for restraint. It preaches what the top business schools preach but that many of their students defy: that finance can been a force for good, not greed ... t is a helpful, useful argument. But the great virtue of this book isn’t in the conclusion so much as it is in the elucidation of it, for this is an anecdote-filled, approachable history of (big) business. It is an engaging read ... By tracing the effect of tax havens, offshore banking, and what he calls stateless hot money, Shaxson sets out a conspiracy, mostly of silence, that enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor, through the unregulated machinations of financial institutions whose creepy credo he sets out crisply: 'You can trust us not to steal your money, but if you want to steal someone else’s money then you can also trust us to turn a blind eye.' Maybe the best line of the year on an economic topic.

... especially in this uncertain, insecure climate, the thesis is important and worth repeating ... Correlation is one thing, and causation another. Shaxson doesn’t prove the latter. But he makes some provocative arguments ... Shaxson also makes one of those wonderful points that is so insightful, it seems obvious in retrospect ... Shaxson also is obsessed with offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands. His obsession might be to the detriment of this particular book ... tossing in unsavory characters who may or may not be figments of his imagination, along with random and unprovable references to possible criminality, only muddies the issue ... Shaxson has some simple, lovely lines...But for the most part, he prefers to bounce quickly from one scandal to another and to pile on descriptors ... It’s exhausting. More important, it loses the reader who is looking for clear analysis, rather than fevered rhetoric, the reader who wants to be shown how it is, rather than told how it is. And so, while Shaxson’s book grapples with one of the most critical economic issues of our day, he ultimately may not convince anyone who doesn’t already agree.

...Shaxson is back, with something bigger to say ... With forensic accounting analysis, sharp reporting and interviews, he demonstrates how individual company leaders, private equity advisers and the big banks, aided and abetted by government and the large audit firms, structure their businesses to increase their and their investors’ share of the economic spoils in good times, while offloading risk and the costs of failure in bad times on staff, customers and the public at large ... Some readers will find the level of financial detail, especially regarding private-equity deals, tough going. Others will feel that the tone is a little ranty and negative. But Shaxson leavens the mix with some great writing ... I wish he had set out detailed proposals for how Britain could take an independent stand against the forces of big capital. The freedom (and the chaos) that Brexit provides is a great opportunity. Better yet, it is an agenda around which the left and the right could unite, the right wishing to preserve the purity and efficiency of free markets and the left to drive social change. Perhaps that will be the subject of his next book.

The book’s principal virtue springs from Shaxson’s skill in unpicking the complexity of the system and explaining it in layman’s terms. He takes the reader by the hand and leads them through bank capital requirements, special purpose vehicles, credit-default swaps and the other derivatives that were one of the main causes of the great crash — in more detail, although with fewer bubbles, than Margot Robbie did in her bathtub in The Big Short ... Shaxson also does an excellent job of fingering the regulatory laxity of the City of London ... While many of Shaxson’s charges are well-aimed and hit their target, as the book gathers pace it widens its angle of attack to spray bullets at pretty much all the usual Spartist targets ... The tone switches from one of journalistic probing to that of a conspiracy theorist whose fingers are typing too fast for his brain ... Some readers, no doubt, will regard the invective as a strength rather than a weakness. Polemics suit a populist era. Shaxson’s book will no doubt sell very well as a bible for Corbynistas, but it risks putting off those who are looking for enlightenment, rather than to have their prejudices confirmed. Which is a shame, because there is a great deal of well reported, well argued stuff in it.

A sharp attack on global financiers who are destroying the livelihoods of the nonwealthy ... Germany-based reporter Shaxson uses a variety of economic theories to examine the many perils of wealth accumulation. The theories are often complex, but the author aids understanding by employing helpful analogies and metaphors. He skillfully bolsters the big-picture elements of the narrative with compelling examples of painful microeconomic consequences for the 99 percent of world citizens who struggle with financial issues ... The author offers a host of instructive discussions of a variety of elements to bolster his argument, including corrupt financiers in London and New York City, geographically obscure tax havens, the bizarre realm of wealth managers in South Dakota, a ravaged newspaper in New Jersey, and a shattered farm economy in Iowa ... A vivid demonstration of how corruption and greed have become the main organizing principles in the finance industry.