CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

Renewing Capitalism 369
the months following 9/11, but the financial structure to enable them to
create new accounts and dummy entities is still very much in existence.
Money laundering drives drugs, crime, and terrorism, not because it is possible,
but because it is so easy. There will be little dent in global drugs and
crime, and the struggle against terrorism will be waged with the lives of men
and women in uniform, as long as our financial structure remains intentionally
riddled with loopholes. This is not a problem that can be solved incrementally.
Either we deal with all dirty money, or we succeed in suppressing
virtually none of it.
Western corporations can enjoy a competitive advantage in lawful operations.
They cannot be as successful as others in lawless operations. Responsible
business interests should understand that they have much more to gain
from supporting and extending rather than from subverting and weakening
legal structures.
Illicit, disguised, and hidden financial flows create a high-risk environment
for capitalists and a low-risk environment for criminals and thugs.
When we pervert the proper functioning of our chosen system, we lose the
soft power it has to project values across the globe. Capitalism itself then
runs a reputational risk. As it is now, many millions of people in developing
and transitional economies scoff at free markets, regarding the concept as a
license to steal in the same way as they see others illicitly enriching themselves.
Our own security and prosperity are in part dependent on others having
a solid stake in the legitimate free-market system.
We have a choice to make as a society. Which is more important to us:
fighting drugs, crime, and terrorism with all reasonable and legal means at
our disposal, or continuing to cultivate and facilitate dirty money surging in
from around the world? Thus far the choice has been we like the money.
This is not a liberal or conservative issue. One of my most politically
conservative friends asked me the key question about dirty money, “Why
should any of it be legal?” With this book, the burden of proof is shifted to
those who want to keep taking it in. The challenge has been posed to western
business and banking communities: Make the case that dirty money or
any part of it is good for your country.
The second reason for change is a sense of humanity. Earlier I told
the story of Mary, weeping, on her knees, begging to give up her child. I
asked you to imagine that you were in that hotel room and to keep the
image in mind through the pages that followed. From this perspective,