Javier Blas Knihy

When it comes to trading in raw materials, there are no rules. Commodity traders make a living by supplying the world with raw goods like oil, grain and metal - no matter how war-torn, famine-stricken or corrupt the country of origin. These are the men who bought oil from Libyan rebels in the midst of the Arab Spring; who took sugar from the Cuban government at the height of the Cold War; who helped Saddam Hussein illicitly sell his resources to the west. It is an industry that affects us all, but whose workings have been deliberately concealed from our view. Now, two Bloomberg journalists tell the full, inside story of how raw materials are bought and sold in the twenty-first century. They risk everything to meet the tribe of billionaires responsible for keeping the planet stocked with raw materials, uncovering a world of big egos and even bigger pay cheques. And they travel the globe - from the oil fields of Kazakhstan, to the copper mines of the Congo, to the gleaming skyscrapers of New York - to recount the most shocking tales from this hidden world of multi-million pound deals. If you have ever felt uneasy about how petrol gets from the Middle East to your tank, or wondered where the metal in your phone comes from, this book offers the answers. It reveals a ruthless underbelly to the world economy - one that no consumer can afford to ignore

The modern world is built on commodities - from the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones. We rarely stop to consider where they come from. But we should. In The World for Sale, two leading journalists lift the lid on one of the least scrutinised corners of the economy: the workings of the billionaire commodity traders who buy, hoard and sell the earth's resources. It is the story of how a handful of swashbuckling businessmen became indispensable cogs in global markets: enabling an enormous expansion in international trade, and connecting resource-rich countries - no matter how corrupt or war-torn - with the world's financial centres. And it is the story of how some traders acquired untold political power, right under the noses of Western regulators and politicians - helping Saddam Hussein to sell his oil, fuelling the Libyan rebel army during the Arab Spring, and funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin's Kremlin in spite of strict sanctions. The result is an eye-opening tour through the wildest frontiers of the global economy, as well as a revelatory guide to how capitalism really works