Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom

Written by Grace Blakeley

Narrated by Grace Blakeley

Winner of the 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize

In the vein of The Shock Doctrine and Evil Geniuses, this timely and “galvanizing” (Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author) manifesto illustrates how corporate and political power brokers have used capitalism to advance their own interests at the expense of the rest of us—and how we can take back our economy.

It’s easy to look at the state of the world around us and feel hopeless. We live in an era marked by war, climate crisis, political polarization, and acute inequality—and yet many of us feel powerless to do anything about these profound issues. We’ve been assured that unfettered capitalism is necessary to ensure our freedom and prosperity but why, in our age of unchecked corporate power, are most of us living paycheck to paycheck? When the economy falters, why do governments bail out corporations and shareholders but leave everyday people in the dust?

Now, acclaimed journalist and progressive star on the rise Grace Blakeley exposes the corrupt system that is failing all around us, pulling back the curtain on the free-market mythology we have been sold. She also clearly illustrates how, as corporate interests have taken hold, governments have historically been shifting away from competition and democracy towards monopoly and oligarchy.

Tracing over a century of neoliberal planning and backdoor bailouts, Blakeley takes us on a deeply reported tour of the corporate crimes, political maneuvering, and economic manipulation that elites have used to enshrine a global system of “vulture capitalism”—planned capitalist economies that benefit corporations and the uber-wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.

As “the sort of book that will help us make a better world” (Rob Delaney, New York Times bestselling author), Vulture Capitalism exposes the cracks already emerging within capitalism, lighting a path forward for how we can democratize our economy, not just our politics, to ensure true freedom for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Mar 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9781797174754

Grace Blakeley

Grace Blakeley, one of the fiercest anti-capitalist advocates of her generation, is an author, journalist, and commentator. She attended the University of Oxford where she graduated with a first-class honors degree in philosophy, economics, and politics and later obtained a masters in African studies. Her writing has appeared in Tribune and the New Statesman. She is the author of Stolen, The Corona Crash, and Vulture Capitalism, and edited Futures of Socialism. Find out more at GraceBlakeley.co.uk.

Reviews for Vulture Capitalism

[tallent.joey · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book has really good insights but overall is really just a hit piece on capitalism. It provides good insights, but seems less factual and more emotion driven about how much the writer hates capitalism.

[timosiochain · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A succinct and surprisingly hopeful insight from Grace on the disastrous path we've taken globally, along with some concrete suggestions as to alternative, including a good run down of the Allende era in Chile. The narration is a little instructive as opposed to stirring, could probably do with a good voice actor for the next one. Recommended though