Total Page : 320
Publisher : St Martin s Press
Publication Date : 2009 10 13
>> Ruthless Bold Brash and Driven
The enigma that is Marc Rich comes thru clearly As a brilliant commodities trader he did whatever it took to make money including trading with some of the world s most vile regimes and despicable characters
He claims and after reading this book I believe he may be correct that he never broke any laws and that he paid the taxes he owed Rich believes he was railroaded by Rudy Giulliani for poltical reasons and for the exposure it would give the future Mayor of New York
Rich is not a sympathetic character but I found it fascinating that while the U S Marshall s chased him around the world for 25 years he was willing to help other agencies of the U S and Israel by giving them access to his vast network of people in places dangerous like Iran Iraq Libya and Yemen
Once he made his mega fortune he also used his own money more than 100 million for charitable or humanitarian purposes with great effect
The sections covering his pardon by President Clinton are fascinating and gives an insight into how the pardon process works and what went wrong with this pardon in the end Ultimately Rich will never again enter the USA
He seems to have lost almost everything but his fortune His Country his wife of over 20 years and a daughter to cancer Finally he was thrown out of the company he built by the very ingrates he had made obscenely wealthy
By the end of the book Rich seemed to me to be a sad and melancholy man living in his beautiful Switzerland home but so far from the center of the action he once so craved A prisoner in his gilded cage placed there by his own blind ambition and singular chase for money
>> A Pure Capitalist
This book tells in plain language the incredible story of Marc Rich Author Daniel Ammann takes very complicated business and legal issues and makes them clear and interesting The story flows nicely It is a can t put it down book
When you re finished you sympathize with Rich Marc Rich speaking through Ammann s text is convincing in his contention that he s been over prosecuted and demonized beyond his alleged crimes Many believe he is the ultimate international demon but the reasons for his notoriety are not clear to the general public After he paid his company s back taxes plus fees US prosecutors who were building name recognition to go on to more powerful or lucrative careers pressed for a criminal conviction Significant resources were used in building this case and hunting him down Bill Clinton could certainly sympathize with the harassment factor
Rich is less convincing in justifying his dealing with the world s most oppressive governments While saying these deals are merely business he claims that in bringing commerce to these sad and poor countries he has made life better there Like the Nicholas Cage character in Lord of War Blu ray he believes This is not our war I believe he made life better for the dictators and their henchmen at the top thereby retarding the development of better societies
Rich showed confidence in his story by giving Ammann unprededented access to people and records and ceding him full editorial and content control Ammann uses his access well and covers Rich s family his rise his methods and lifestyle Rich s terse answers in the interview at the end show wisdom and experience To me his flaw is that he believes that everything legal is moral
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in this person and topic
>> Censorship is not only in China
I m a proud Kindle user and live in Italy
I believe it s ridiculous that the kindle version of this book is not available for customers living in Europe
Why should I buy a physical book and pay more for it pay for extra shipping cost and wait several days when I could easily download it in one minute
The fact that I m not allowed to do it simply because I live in Europe is just unbelievable
When will this author and his publishing company realize we live in the third millennium and this kind of stupid limitations don t make sense anymore
Can somebody explain this to me
