Dollars, Vapes, Crypto & NFTs: How Money Laundering Is Winning | Aaron Bastani Meets Oliver Bullough

Quick Overview

Money laundering, estimated globally between two and five trillion US dollars annually, represents a colossal, failing infrastructure where the US dollar serves as the primary mechanism, allowing the world's worst crimes, including terrorism and drug trafficking, to persist because those in power neglect to effectively measure or address the problem, while compliance spending reaches $200 billion yearly without demonstrable success.

Key Points: Global money laundering is estimated to be between two and five percent of global GDP, equating to $2 to $5 trillion annually, which funds the profits of all acquisitive crime. The basic infrastructure for nearly all money laundering relies on the US dollar, the euro, and the pound, meaning the currency issued by the Federal Reserve enables much of the global crime and drug distribution. The global cost of compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) laws totals about $200 billion US every year, an amount the UN estimates is sufficient to solve world hunger and provide clean water globally. Criminals now utilize a "drop-down menu" of options for moving value, including buying luxury handbags to ship to China, using cryptocurrencies like Tether, or physically shipping cash, making it "incredibly easy to be a criminal." Western fictional portrayals like 'Ozark' neglect how money laundering functions globally, especially in China and the Middle East, where value transfer often involves physical goods rather than just bank accounts, mirroring historical Medici banking practices. Debanking, which saw account closures rise from 45,000 in 2016 to 343,000 in 2022, disproportionately affects Muslims and poor individuals based on spurious connections or lack of revenue generation for the bank, rather than being solely a political issue affecting the right-wing or crypto industry. The 'digu' trade between Europe and China, involving the shipment of luxury goods like handbags and watches in exchange for cash that ultimately pays for drugs supplied from South America, is a multi-billion dollar underground financial system that circumvents Chinese capital controls.