Synopses & Reviews
This is a unique look into the huge and fascinating multi-billion dollar international drug industry. Rather than reporting it as a and#147;war,and#8221; Wainwight looked at the drug trade as a business, with a quarter billion customers and worldwide revenues of about $300 billion a yearand#151;with similar concerns as any Fortune 500 business, such as human resources, outsourcing and corporate social responsibility.
Some of Wainwightand#8217;s insights to help turn the way we think about the war on drugs on its head include:
and#149;Supply and demand. Drug cartels, as monopoly-buyers, use tactics like forcing their suppliers, the farmers, to absorb price shocks when coca fields are eradicated, rather than absorb it themselves.
and#149;Research and development. The cartels have invested in innovative ways to increase yield from coca plants; so even though less coca is now grown, it yields more cocaine, thus keeping the supply chain in good shape.
and#149;Mergers and acquisitions. Why the violence and bloody battles of the Mexican cartels have been generated by opportunistic takeover attempts.
and#149;Competition and collusion. Why the mafias running El Salvadorand#8217;s drug gangs realized that violent competition was hurting profits and opted for a strategy of collusion.
and#149;Social responsibility. How cartels and#147;give backand#8221; to society by meeting social needs that governments have been unable to satisfy.
and#149;Media relations. How dedicated and#147;press officersand#8221; communicate with (and threaten) local journalists to secure the kind of coverage the cartel wants and use the media to send intimidating messages to their rivals
and#149;Human resource models. How cartels, in a business with a high turnover of personnel because of all the killing use prisons as employment agencies and training academies to ensure a steady stream of new recruits for jobs that are risky and donand#8217;t pay particularly well.
and#149;Franchising. Lessons the cartels have learned from some of Fortune 500and#8217;s restaurant business'.
Using classical economics and modern business theory to explain why drug cartels work in the way they do and based seven years of reporting in more than a dozen countries, Wainwright provides fascinating, humorous and novel insights into a multibillion-dollar worldwide industry and provides an innovative blueprint to address the drug problem, as well as a range of other criminal activities. If mobsters think like businessmen, law enforcers can thwart them by learning to think like economists.
Synopsis
What drug lords learned from big business
How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the 300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola.
And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might better understand how they workand stop throwing away 100 billion a year in a futile effort to win the war against this global, highly organized business.
Your intrepid guide to the most exotic and brutal industry on earth is Tom Wainwright. Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers.
The cast of characters includes Bin Laden, the Bolivian coca guide; Old Lin, the Salvadoran gang leader; Starboy, the millionaire New Zealand pill maker; and a cozy Mexican grandmother who cooks blueberry pancakes while plotting murder. Along with presidents, cops, and teenage hitmen, they explain such matters as the business purpose for head-to-toe tattoos, how gangs decide whether to compete or collude, and why cartels care a surprising amount about corporate social responsibility.
More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them.
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About the Author
Tom Wainwright is the homepage editor of The Economist. Until 2012 he was the Mexico City correspondent of The Economist, covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, as well as parts of South America and the United States border region. He has freelanced for newspapers including the London Times, the Guardian, the Literary Review, and assorted other newspapers. He has a first-class degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University. Wainwright lives in London, England.