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The Great European Rip-off
The Great European Rip-off
Oct 27, 2024 2:23 AM

Author:David Craig,Matthew Elliott

The Great European Rip-off

In this EU referendum year, it's time for people across Europe to look at what really goes on in Brussels in our name.

It has been estimated that the EU costs us around £1,000 billion a year - an incredible £2000 for every man, woman and child in Europe. So what do we get for our money? Politicians and administrators selflessly working to bring us efficient government? Well-targeted regulations that promote economic prosperity? A safe and free society? A well-protected environment? Help for people in poorer countries?

Or is our money being squandered by a self-serving euro-elite of unaccountable politicians and incompetent bureaucrats, or else devoured in a feeding frenzy of fraud and corruption where a few lucky insiders become unimaginably rich at our expense? And is the tsunami of regulation pouring out of Brussels in reality strangling industry, destroying jobs, restricting personal freedom, desecrating the environment and further impoverishing the developing world?

Using their extensive network of insider sources, David Craig and Matthew Elliott smash through the secrecy and disinformation that are the Brussels hallmark to reveal what our European rulers are really getting up to. The result is a horrifying story of bureaucracy, hypocrisy and kleptocracy - and how we are all suffering as a result.

Reviews

Hard-hitting ... damning ... If you think what management consultants do is to dress up common sense in jargon and flog it as vision to credulous executives, you are, according to [Bogdanich and Forsythe], greatly underestimating their impact

—— The Times

A masterful work of investigative journalism ... to unearth conflicts of interest, corruption, hypocrisy and strategic blunders that read like a prosecutor's indictment ... The fact that neither regulators, the public, nor most of McKinsey's employees knew about these sordid episodes ... is a testament to the authors' prowess as investigative reporters ... superb

—— Washington Post

Deeply reported ... The portrait this book creates is one of a company chasing profits, spreading the gospel of downsizing and offshoring, its leaders virtually unmoored from any guiding principles or moral code ... a clear and devastating picture of the management philosophy that helped drive the decline of a stable ... middle class over the last 50 years'

—— The New York Times

Hypocrisy, avarice, ridiculous PowerPoints, aiding and abetting the world's polluters and drug companies. Every page made my blood boil as I read about McKinsey's flawed reasoning and the vast profits made from ethically dubious work for governments, polluting companies and big pharma

—— Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate, author of The Price of Inequality

'A lengthy and damning charge sheet ... makes you so angry you want to chuck rocks at its offices ... the evidence the authors winkle out is astonishing ... What sustains you are the authors' eye for detail and killer quotes. If you want to know why top pay for US executives has risen to a record 350 times that of the average worker, look to McKinsey

—— Sunday Times

A highly informed, fascinating read

—— The Guardian

A harrowing account of decades of dishonourable exploits

—— Economist

New York Times reporters Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe's devastating investigation into the consulting firm uncovers a story of secrecy, delusion and untold harm. ... The book's scrutiny - and measured sense of outrage - is overdue and, you hope, only the beginning

—— Observer

With McKinsey's deep reach into business and government around the world, it is inevitably and correctly a focus for discussion on what modern corporations are for ... That this internal turmoil has come to light is testament to the depth of sourcing of journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe [whose] reporting of these and other controversies has intensified questions over the firm's ethics ... The debate ... is intensely uncomfortable for McKinsey's leadership'

—— Financial Times

In government and the private sector, the influence of McKinsey is difficult to overstate. Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe penetrate the firm's vaunted culture of secrecy to expose the malign ways in which McKinsey's 'scientific management' ends up impacting all of our lives. Panoramic, meticulously reported and ultimately devastating, this is an important book

—— Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain

Two of the finest investigative reporters in the business got behind the wall of secrecy erected by one the world's most influential companies. A revelatory - and disturbing - portrait of a powerful firm whose vaunted reputation is belied by its actions

—— Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side

After the publication of When McKinsey Comes to Town, the secretive consulting firm is going to need its own management consultant to address the damage. A tour de force of investigative reporting

—— James B. Stewart, author of Den of Thieves

Can you trust those clever folk at the consulting firm McKinsey? ... This book shows that McKinsey & Company has a darker side.

—— The Times, *Best Business Books of 2022*

Timely

—— The Week

Excellent investigative work ... Every chapter of When McKinsey Comes to Town lays out another disturbing case in which McKinsey worked against the public interest

—— Literary Review

An investigative tour de force [that] strip[s] away the aura of respectability that has surrounded the profession for more than a century

—— Prospect

[An] account...based on exhaustive research... [which] makes for compelling reading

—— Times Literary Supplement

A thriller . . . An engaging story of secret deals and embargo-evasion.

—— Forbes

An entertaining history of the rise of the international trading houses and the charismatic, freewheeling risk-takers who headed them.

—— Books of the Year , Financial Times

The story of how a few commodity-trading firms quietly reconfigured the world economy, making fortunes, juggling embargoes and swaying geopolitics.

—— Books of the Year , Economist

Remarkable. The desperate story of Irish football but also a book about how Ireland works. Outstanding

—— Dion Fanning

Utterly COMPELLING ... I can't decide if Delaney is a machiavellian mastermind or a lucky chancer

—— Marian Keyes , via Twitter

Made my blood boil

—— Des Cahill

Absolutely superb ... Good old fashioned gumboot journalism and a rollicking good read

—— Paul Howard , via Twitter

Fantastic ... A real page-turner

—— Marie Crowe , Game On

The Irish sports book of the year

—— Balls.ie

Excellent ... includes staggering detail

—— Daily Mail

Astonishing ... It reads like an outrageous work of fiction with a scarcely believable cast of characters

—— Business Post

Brilliant ... Easily the Irish sports book of the year

—— Hot Press

The most important book ever written about Irish sport ... This is the must-read of 2020

—— RTÉ Culture

Astonishing ... One of the most important books published in this country. If you wanted to change Ireland, you would need to read this book

—— Dion Fanning , The Currency

A monumental piece of writing and investigation, a work that will go down as Irish sporting history's Woodward & Bernstein moment

—— Irish Examiner
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