PDF Red Rubber: The Story of the Rubber Slave Trade Flourishing on the Congo on the Year of Grace 1906 by E. D. Morel in History

Description

A deeply reported; fast-paced exposé of the money and the cardinals-turned-financiers at the heart of the Vatican—the world’s biggest; most powerful religious institution—from an acclaimed journalist with “exhaustive research techniques” (The New York Times).From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct; a magnificent investigation nine years in the making; this book traces the political intrigue and inner workings of the Catholic Church. Decidedly not about faith; belief in God; or religious doctrine; this book is about the church’s accumulation of wealth and its byzantine entanglements with financial markets across the world. Told through 200 years of prelates; bishops; cardinals; and the Popes who oversee it all; Gerald Posner uncovers an eyebrow-raising account of money and power in perhaps the most influential organization in the history of the world. God’s Bankers has it all: a rare exposé and an astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans; murdered prosecutors; mysterious deaths of private investigators; and questionable suicides; a carnival of characters from Popes and cardinals; financiers and mobsters; kings and prime ministers; and a set of moral and political circumstances that clarify not only the church’s aims and ambitions; but reflect the larger dilemmas of the world’s more recent history. And Posner even looks to the future to surmise if Pope Francis can succeed where all his predecessors failed: to overcome the resistance to change in the Vatican’s Machiavellian inner court and to rein in the excesses of its seemingly uncontrollable financial quagmire. Part thriller; part financial tell-all; this book shows with extraordinary precision how the Vatican has evolved from a foundation of faith to a corporation of extreme wealth and power.