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Gifts from The Morning Star
The new Mafia capitalism
A new, totally unregulated and unscrupulous form of capitalism has emerged, mired in dirty money from drug-dealing, pornography and corruption, writes JOHN GREEN
Amsterdam's Red Light District

MISHA GLENNY’S new series McMafia was launched on BBC TV on New Year’s Day. It is an appropriate if depressing opener for the new year. 

It aims to highlight a new stage in the evolution of global capitalism: Mafia capitalism. We are, though, not talking here of a few family Cosa Nostras controlling the underworld, but well-organised crime syndicates, with links to governments and security services, gnawing their way to the core of capitalism.

The recent revelations from WikiLeaks and the Panama and Paradise Papers exposing massive tax evasion by global companies only show the seemingly less grubby aspect of capitalist venality. 

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