BOOKS

HER LATEST: The Sport and Prey of Capitalists

book cover

Linda McQuaig is best known for her books describing how the corporate elite has managed to shape government economic and social policy in ways that have harmed the public interest:

In The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth (2019), McQuaig looks at how privatization has become a pervasive and destructive force, and what a sharp departure this is from Canada’s little-known but impressive tradition of public enterprise. BUY

In The Trouble with Billionaires (2010), McQuaig and co-author Neil Brooks, a professor of tax policy at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, examined the rise of the billionaire class and its negative impact on society, and argued for a much more progressive tax system. BUY

  • Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality (2012) is a version of The Trouble with Billionaires with an emphasis on economic policies in the U.S. BUY
  • The Trouble with Billionaires (2013) is the U.K. version, with updated material and a focus on extreme income inequality in Britain. BUY

In Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the US Empire (2007), McQuaig argues that Canada should stop supporting the US in its role as an imperial power. BUY

It’s The Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet (2004) looked at how the quest for oil has long shaped US foreign policy, culminating in George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq, even as global warming was making it imperative for the world to curb oil consumption. BUY

  • It’s the Crude, Dude: Greed, Gas, War and the American Way (2006) is a version of McQuaig’s 2004 book with added information relating to the U.S. BUY

In All You Can Eat (2001), McQuaig looked at how the new international financial rules and trade deals were ensconcing a radical form of capitalism, leading to deep inequality and the disempowerment of the people. Drawing on the work of economic historian and anthropologist Karl Polanyi, McQuaig described how the new capitalism was not part of a natural evolution but rather a deliberately imposed redesign of society at odds with the basic human need for community. BUY

The Cult of Impotence (1998) disputed the notion that countries had no alternative but to submit to corporate demands for deep tax cuts and reduced social spending—or wealth-holders would move their capital offshore. She noted that, in the postwar era, countries had created international financial rules that prevented excessive capital mobility, and that such restraints were still possible in the modern global economy. What had changed wasn’t so much the technology but the political insistence of corporate interests on getting their way. BUY

Her 1995 book, Shooting the Hippo, topped The Globe and Mail national best-seller list for more than two months. It argued that politicians and the business community had misled the Canadian public with claims that rising social spending was driving up the national deficit, thereby requiring the government to slash social spending. The book disputed the seriousness of the deficit and argued that the deficit’s prime cause was the Bank of Canada’s radical anti-inflation policy, which had dramatically pushed up interest rates and driven the country into recession.” BUY

Her best-selling 1993 book The Wealthy Banker’s Wife compared the social welfare systems of Europe with those of the United States, and showed how Canada, traditionally in the middle between the two extremes, was increasingly veering towards the US model. BUY

The Quick and the Dead (1991) relates the inside story behind the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States, and its negative impact on Canada. BUY

Her first book, Behind Closed Doors (1987), relates the history of the fight over tax policy in Canada, detailing how members of the financial elite have effectively maintained and extended control over the country’s tax policy, to their own benefit. BUY

  • 1987 – Behind Closed Doors: How the Rich Won Control of Canada’s Tax System … And Ended Up Richer – Toronto: Penguin Books; ISBN 0-670-81678-7
  • 1991 – The Quick and the Dead: Brian Mulroney, Big Business and the Seduction of Canada – Toronto: Penguin Books; ISBN 0-670-83305-3
  • 1993 – The Wealthy Banker’s Wife: The Assault on Equality in Canada – Toronto: Penguin Books – ISBN 0-14-023065-3
  • 1995 – Shooting the Hippo: Death by Deficit and Other Canadian Myths – Toronto: Penguin Books; ISBN 978-0-670-84767-9
  • 1998 – The Cult of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness in the Global Economy – Toronto: Penguin Books; ISBN 0-670-87278-4
  • 2001 – All You Can Eat: Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism – Toronto: Penguin Books; ISBN 978-0-14-026222-3
  • 2004 – It’s the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet – Toronto: Doubleday Canada; ISBN 978-0-385-66011-2
  • 2006 – It’s the Crude, Dude: Greed, Gas, War and the American Way – New York: St. Martin’s Press; ISBN 978-0-312-36006-1
  • 2007 – Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire – Toronto: Doubleday Canada; ISBN 978-0-385-66012-9
  • 2010 – The Trouble with Billionaires (co-authored with Neil Brooks) – Toronto: Viking Canada; ; ISBN 978-0-670-06419-9
  • 2012 – Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality (co-authored with Neil Brooks) – Boston: Beacon Press; ISBN 978-0-8070-0339-8
  • 2019 – The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth