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The Trouble with Billionaires

How the Super-Rich Hijacked the World (and How we Can Take It Back)

Published by Oneworld Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

The international bestselling attack on the mega-wealthy comes to the UK

In this searing and entertaining indictment of the super-rich, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks challenge the idea that today’s cavernous income inequality is the result of merit, and reveal how the global economic system has been hijacked by the wealthiest, with disastrous consequences for us all.

The high taxes and strong social programmes of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s gave us sky-high economic growth and rising equality. In recent years, however, we’ve been constantly told that taxes and government spending are bad. McQuaig and Brooks systematically debunk these claims. As their research shows, not only do lower taxes correlate with worse societal outcomes – from health to the environment – they also fail to produce economic prosperity.



A daring challenge to the conventional wisdom, The Trouble with Billionaires provides the most compelling case yet for rejecting the Coalition’s mean-spirited mix of tax breaks for the rich and austerity for the rest.

About The Authors

Journalist Linda McQuaig is author of seven Canadian bestsellers, which have garnered her a formidable reputation for taking on the establishment.

Neil Brooks is director of the Graduate Program in Taxation at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto. He has published extensively on income tax issues and has been a consultant on tax policy and reform issues to numerous governments around the world.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Oneworld Publications (May 1, 2013)
  • Length: 288 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781780742205

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Raves and Reviews

'Entertaining and enraging... assiduously researched and a fast-paced read.'

– John Kampfner, Observer

'A devastating expose from two of our most rigorous, knowledgeable and humorous chroniclers of corporate excess. Indispensable.'

– Naomi Klein - Author of No Logo

'Magnificent: the book of the moment, that was just waiting to be written, and has nowbeen written very well.'

– George Monbiot - Guardian columnist and author of The Age of Consent

'Lively, tough-minded, and impeccably researched.'

– Joel Bakan - author of The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

'I don't know another book that illuminates the epic crime behind the current 'economic crisis' as concisely, vividly and truthfully as this landmark work.'

– John Pilger - director of The War on Democracy and author of Freedom Next Time

'Each page of this book should bring forth rage and determination in readers. Our world civilization is being corrupted and violated, its future rendered hopeless by those few billionaires at the very top… As the authors show, there is another way. But for that, people need to wake up. This book is their wake up call.'

– Yasmin Alibhai-Brown - columnist, The Independent and The Evening Standard

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