When it comes to the relationship between capitalism and crime, people on the left, social

democrats, socialists, progressives, generally think of oppression and exploitation.

They say that people turn to crime, broadly speaking, because they can't make ends meet through legitimate

means. They've been left behind by mainstream economy, the way that most people earn money

most of the time. That may be true. You might agree, you might disagree. But the truth is,

there's a more interesting and important relationship between capitalism and crime than that,

namely the relationship between the state and currencies and money laundering.

Money laundering is estimated to be worth globally trillions of dollars a year,

and the basic infrastructure for all of that is the dollar, the euro, and the pound, some

other currencies too, but almost all of it isn't US dollars.

So while the White House talks about a war on drugs and a war on crime, the currency being

issued by the Federal Reserve is the infrastructure that allows much or nearly all of that

crime and all of those drugs to be produced and

distributed around the world. And here's where things get really interesting because you know what?

It turns out those in power don't really care about much of this. So what is money laundering?

Why should you care about it? Does it look different in places like China and Russia

than it does in Europe and the United States? And what do vape shops, NFTs and luxury watches

have in common? This is such an important conversation. I want to talk about crypto. I want to talk

about terrorism, sanctions, debanking. This issue is so much bigger than I realized

until a short while ago. Until I read this fabulous book, Everybody Loves Our Dollars by Oliver

Bullo. Really, really, really important intervention in a topic that isn't talked about

very much, but is absolutely on your high street.

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