Author: Peter Schweizer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute and the former William J. Casey Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and former member of the Ultraterroism Study Group at Sandia National Laboratory. He is the author of several books one of which is Secret Empires.
Description From Amazon
Peter Schweizer has been fighting corruption—and winning—for years. In Throw Them All Out, he exposed insider trading by members of Congress, leading to the passage of the STOCK Act. In Extortion, he uncovered how politicians use mafia-like tactics to enrich themselves. And in Clinton Cash, he revealed the Clintons’ massive money machine and sparked an FBI investigation.
Now he explains how a new corruption has taken hold, involving larger sums of money than ever before. Stuffing tens of thousands of dollars into a freezer has morphed into multibillion-dollar equity deals done in the dark corners of the world.
An American bank opening in China would be prohibited by US law from hiring a slew of family members of top Chinese politicians. However, a Chinese bank opening in America can hire anyone it wants. It can even invite the friends and families of American politicians to invest in can’t-lose deals.
President Donald Trump’s children have made front pages across the world for their dicey transactions. However, the media has barely looked into questionable deals made by those close to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, and lesser-known politicians who have been in the game longer.
In many parts of the world, the children of powerful political figures go into business and profit handsomely, not necessarily because they are good at it, but because people want to curry favor with their influential parents. This is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. But for relatives of some prominent political families, we may already be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.
Deeply researched and packed with shocking revelations, Secret Empires identifies public servants who cannot be trusted and provides a path toward a more accountable government.
Reviews From GoodReads
Devastating indictment of Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, Richard Durbin, Barack Obama, and others. Both Republicans and Democrats are exposed as being frauds. I found myself surprised at several of the revelations that went unreported for years by the media. This book tells the tale of how and why Washington cronies are in bed with corrupt foreign oligarchs and governments. Biden’s chapter here is perhaps the most important given the upcoming election. There’s no excuse for the actions Biden and others have taken to enrich their family and friends.
Sometimes words fail me and this is one of those times. I read Secret Empires page by page, start to finish. It is extremely well written and very well documented as to the truth of what has been written.
My take away from the book? Washington DC is more dirtier than I had ever imagined and that is saying quite a bit considering I grew up in the shadows of the John F. Kennedy Assassination, the LBJ dishonesty in regards to Vietnam; the Richard Nixon Watergate debacle and how could anyone not remember the sexcapades of Bill Clinton. That was all followed up with Barack Obama, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. The jury is still out on Donald Trump.
What this book so clearly points out is that there is a much deeper corruption involved within the highest levels of government in Washington that goes far beyond the figurehead names like Joe Biden, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Bill & Hillary Clinton. Except for Bill & Hillary, most have managed to keep their names out of corruption while members of their families and close friends have reaped the financial rewards of their association with the more famous names of their political family members. This has created corruption at levels most of us could not imagine.
I found this book to be totally disgusting. Just when I thought it could not get any worse than the headlines on the nightly news shows, you Secret Empires and realize just how bad life and times in Washington DC actually is. Family members have made BILLIONS of dollars by association with their famous parents primarily through foreign countries who seek to garner favors from the politicians in power and it is supposedly all legal. If they did the exact same thing within the confines of the United States, they could be brought up on charges but not so if it involved foreign governments. They have learned how to milk the system and milk it they continue to do while we just look on in amazement.
The corruption is not just a Democrat or a Republican issue, both political parties have engaged in the corruption outlined in this book. Sadly there seems to be no end in sight especially since the national news media does not seem to care one way or the other.
Financial payoffs that we more closely have associated with foreign governments are now on our doorstep. It just amazes me that the news media, the very people we have for years entrusted with insuring this kind of corruption does not happen, ignore all signs of it. You would think that the detailed information this author could discover for his book would be readily available to reporters. I defy you to find stories in the news about the sons of Joe Biden and John Kerry like you read about in this book.
The content of this book disgusts me. Frankly I have reached a point in my life that I just don’t care anymore and that seems to be the prevailing lack of concern for most Americans. Maybe “most Americans” would feel differently IF they were aware of the corruption described in this book; I certainly wasn’t and I pay attention.
Who should read this book? EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE! Would I read it again? No, made me sick enough the first time through it. Would I buy it as a gift? Probably not because I seriously doubt anyone would intentionally read a book like this even though they should.
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