Faceless intermediaries
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Description
Book Introduction
*Financial Times and McKinsey Recommended Economics and Management Books*
Raw materials: The real cause of supply chain crises, rising prices, and power struggles.
Reveal the 'faces' of those brokers!
Samsung's semiconductors, displays, and batteries are domestically produced, but all materials are imported.
All Hyundai cars are also made from imported iron ore and aluminum.
So, have you heard of Glencore, Trafigura, or Vitol? Ivan Glasenberg, or Marc Rich? Surely, they're unfamiliar.
Glencore, Trafigura, and Vitol are the world's three largest commodity brokers.
Ivan Glasenberg is the CEO of Glencore, and Marc Rich is the founder of Glencore's predecessor, Marc Rich & Co., and a legendary broker known as the "King of Oil."
These are the people behind Samsung and Hyundai.
"Faceless Brokers," which deals with the world of raw material brokers and intermediaries, was already covered in the media before its Korean release.
This is probably because it is the first book to shed light on raw material brokers and intermediaries, which are among the causes of supply chain crises, rising prices, and power struggles.
Javier Blas and Jack Pasche, who have been working as commodity journalists for over 20 years at the Financial Times and Bloomberg News, reveal everything about the commodity market and its brokers through numerous reports, interviews, and analysis of confidential documents.
The raw material brokers revealed in this way were entities that raked in enormous profits while thoroughly concealing their identities through unlisted systems, transactions through tax havens, and secret deals with dictatorships.
Let's take a look at the terrifying tightrope walk between legal and illegal by commodity brokers who roam the globe for money and power.
The moment you face the true faces of those who control our lives, you will feel a thrilling and chilling sensation, as if you were seeing the face of the real culprit in a thriller movie.
Raw materials: The real cause of supply chain crises, rising prices, and power struggles.
Reveal the 'faces' of those brokers!
Samsung's semiconductors, displays, and batteries are domestically produced, but all materials are imported.
All Hyundai cars are also made from imported iron ore and aluminum.
So, have you heard of Glencore, Trafigura, or Vitol? Ivan Glasenberg, or Marc Rich? Surely, they're unfamiliar.
Glencore, Trafigura, and Vitol are the world's three largest commodity brokers.
Ivan Glasenberg is the CEO of Glencore, and Marc Rich is the founder of Glencore's predecessor, Marc Rich & Co., and a legendary broker known as the "King of Oil."
These are the people behind Samsung and Hyundai.
"Faceless Brokers," which deals with the world of raw material brokers and intermediaries, was already covered in the media before its Korean release.
This is probably because it is the first book to shed light on raw material brokers and intermediaries, which are among the causes of supply chain crises, rising prices, and power struggles.
Javier Blas and Jack Pasche, who have been working as commodity journalists for over 20 years at the Financial Times and Bloomberg News, reveal everything about the commodity market and its brokers through numerous reports, interviews, and analysis of confidential documents.
The raw material brokers revealed in this way were entities that raked in enormous profits while thoroughly concealing their identities through unlisted systems, transactions through tax havens, and secret deals with dictatorships.
Let's take a look at the terrifying tightrope walk between legal and illegal by commodity brokers who roam the globe for money and power.
The moment you face the true faces of those who control our lives, you will feel a thrilling and chilling sensation, as if you were seeing the face of the real culprit in a thriller movie.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Introduction: The 21st Century Risk Hunter
Chapter 1: The Founders of Empire: Ludwig Jeselson, Theodor Weisser, John H.
McMillan Jr.
Chapter 2: The Coronation of the Emperor: Marc Rich, Johannes Deus
Chapter 3: Endless Greed: Ndollo, Mark Rich, and Johannes Deus
Chapter 4: The Emperor's Succession: Andrew Hall
Chapter 5: The End of the Greed Party: Billy Strautote and Chloe Dauphin
Chapter 6: Falling Empires: David Reuben and Lev Chernoy
Chapter 7: The Most Capitalist Communist: Ian Taylor
Chapter 8: The Big Bang from China: Michael Davis and Ivan Glasenberg
Chapter 9: Black Gold, Black Deals: Mercury, Gunbor Energy
Chapter 10: Raw Material Colonies, Africa: Glencore, Trafigura
Chapter 11: Hunger is Money: Tradax, Glencore, and Archer Daniels Midland
Chapter 12: Billionaire Makers: Glencore and Cargill
Chapter 13: Power Sells: Glencore, Vitol, and Trafigura
Going Out: Tomorrow's Danger Hunter
Acknowledgements / Note
Chapter 1: The Founders of Empire: Ludwig Jeselson, Theodor Weisser, John H.
McMillan Jr.
Chapter 2: The Coronation of the Emperor: Marc Rich, Johannes Deus
Chapter 3: Endless Greed: Ndollo, Mark Rich, and Johannes Deus
Chapter 4: The Emperor's Succession: Andrew Hall
Chapter 5: The End of the Greed Party: Billy Strautote and Chloe Dauphin
Chapter 6: Falling Empires: David Reuben and Lev Chernoy
Chapter 7: The Most Capitalist Communist: Ian Taylor
Chapter 8: The Big Bang from China: Michael Davis and Ivan Glasenberg
Chapter 9: Black Gold, Black Deals: Mercury, Gunbor Energy
Chapter 10: Raw Material Colonies, Africa: Glencore, Trafigura
Chapter 11: Hunger is Money: Tradax, Glencore, and Archer Daniels Midland
Chapter 12: Billionaire Makers: Glencore and Cargill
Chapter 13: Power Sells: Glencore, Vitol, and Trafigura
Going Out: Tomorrow's Danger Hunter
Acknowledgements / Note
Detailed image
Into the book
The daily trading volume of the world's top five oil brokers, based on crude oil and refined petroleum products such as gasoline and jet fuel combined, is equivalent to 25 percent of the world's daily oil demand.
Additionally, the world's seven largest grain brokers account for nearly half of global grain and oilseed trade.
Cobalt, an essential raw material for electric vehicles, is produced by a company called Glencore, which accounts for one-third of the world's supply.
(…) They work more agilely and aggressively than any other industry on Earth, and they determine the price of resources.
---From "Entering"
They seem to have a unique perspective.
If you have money, you can go anywhere, politics is a given, and if possible, you shouldn't even worry about morality.
This may still be a proverb to many people working in the raw materials brokerage industry.
---From Chapter 1, “The Founder of the Empire”
They exploited the economic weaknesses of countries like Jamaica by wielding unprecedented financial power in one hand and dominating the markets with the other.
Western oil majors and mining companies were out, regulation and oversight were minimal, and commodity traders enjoyed unrestricted freedom in a niche that Wall Street had yet to discover.
---From Chapter 3, “Endless Greed”
Critics of the situation saw Richie's influence in Jamaica as excessive.
One U.S. government official even sarcastically remarked:
“Rich, in a word, has eaten up the Jamaican economy.”
---From Chapter 3, “Endless Greed”
Now traders are beginning to split into two camps.
First, they are the type of people whose specialty is 'business development' and who are accustomed to flying to distant foreign countries to entertain local 'big shots' in a lavish manner.
On the other side, there was a group of people who called themselves 'traders'.
They moved as one with their phones and computer screens, buying and selling financial products based on spot transactions made by business developers.
---From Chapter 4, “The Emperor’s Succession Ceremony”
It is said that whenever the Dauphin met a Mexican mining magnate, he would remember exactly what each of them's favorite gifts were.
For some, cognac was the best gift, for others, chocolate.
In this way, the Dauphin established relationships with oil suppliers in Angola and Nigeria and with oil buyers in Central and South America.
It also bought minerals from dozens of small-scale mining companies in Peru and Mexico and exported them to Chinese buyers who were like "vacuum cleaners."
---From Chapter 5, “The Greed Party Ends”
“In the past, they gave me a bag full of dollars.
Of course, that's not the case these days.
Just give them information about the stocks they invested in.
Or you can buy their uncle or mother's real estate for 10 times the market price.
“It’s easy, right?”
---From Chapter 10, “Africa, the Colony of Raw Materials”
During the commodity supercycle, not only at Cargill but also throughout the commodity brokerage industry, the sound of money rolling in was constant.
From 2000 to 2011, the combined net profits of the world's largest brokers in the oil, metals, and grain sectors (Vitol, Glencore, and Cargill) amounted to $76.3 billion.
(…) To put it simply, it was more than the total accumulated profits of Apple or Coca-Cola over the same period, and it was enough to swallow up giants of ‘corporate America’ like Boeing or Goldman Sachs.
---From Chapter 13, “Even Hunger Becomes Money”
A former Petrobras trader testified that he bribed Vitol using the alias "Phil Collins."
He then explained the inside story, saying, “If you want to take bribes from brokers, you can’t do it by taking $10 per barrel for one cargo.”
And he revealed the 'principle of bribery'.
“You get paid a few cents consistently per contract or per product.”
Additionally, the world's seven largest grain brokers account for nearly half of global grain and oilseed trade.
Cobalt, an essential raw material for electric vehicles, is produced by a company called Glencore, which accounts for one-third of the world's supply.
(…) They work more agilely and aggressively than any other industry on Earth, and they determine the price of resources.
---From "Entering"
They seem to have a unique perspective.
If you have money, you can go anywhere, politics is a given, and if possible, you shouldn't even worry about morality.
This may still be a proverb to many people working in the raw materials brokerage industry.
---From Chapter 1, “The Founder of the Empire”
They exploited the economic weaknesses of countries like Jamaica by wielding unprecedented financial power in one hand and dominating the markets with the other.
Western oil majors and mining companies were out, regulation and oversight were minimal, and commodity traders enjoyed unrestricted freedom in a niche that Wall Street had yet to discover.
---From Chapter 3, “Endless Greed”
Critics of the situation saw Richie's influence in Jamaica as excessive.
One U.S. government official even sarcastically remarked:
“Rich, in a word, has eaten up the Jamaican economy.”
---From Chapter 3, “Endless Greed”
Now traders are beginning to split into two camps.
First, they are the type of people whose specialty is 'business development' and who are accustomed to flying to distant foreign countries to entertain local 'big shots' in a lavish manner.
On the other side, there was a group of people who called themselves 'traders'.
They moved as one with their phones and computer screens, buying and selling financial products based on spot transactions made by business developers.
---From Chapter 4, “The Emperor’s Succession Ceremony”
It is said that whenever the Dauphin met a Mexican mining magnate, he would remember exactly what each of them's favorite gifts were.
For some, cognac was the best gift, for others, chocolate.
In this way, the Dauphin established relationships with oil suppliers in Angola and Nigeria and with oil buyers in Central and South America.
It also bought minerals from dozens of small-scale mining companies in Peru and Mexico and exported them to Chinese buyers who were like "vacuum cleaners."
---From Chapter 5, “The Greed Party Ends”
“In the past, they gave me a bag full of dollars.
Of course, that's not the case these days.
Just give them information about the stocks they invested in.
Or you can buy their uncle or mother's real estate for 10 times the market price.
“It’s easy, right?”
---From Chapter 10, “Africa, the Colony of Raw Materials”
During the commodity supercycle, not only at Cargill but also throughout the commodity brokerage industry, the sound of money rolling in was constant.
From 2000 to 2011, the combined net profits of the world's largest brokers in the oil, metals, and grain sectors (Vitol, Glencore, and Cargill) amounted to $76.3 billion.
(…) To put it simply, it was more than the total accumulated profits of Apple or Coca-Cola over the same period, and it was enough to swallow up giants of ‘corporate America’ like Boeing or Goldman Sachs.
---From Chapter 13, “Even Hunger Becomes Money”
A former Petrobras trader testified that he bribed Vitol using the alias "Phil Collins."
He then explained the inside story, saying, “If you want to take bribes from brokers, you can’t do it by taking $10 per barrel for one cargo.”
And he revealed the 'principle of bribery'.
“You get paid a few cents consistently per contract or per product.”
---From "Going Out"
Publisher's Review
The birth and present of the raw material brokerage that influences our lives
And the secret they wanted to keep hidden until the end
『Faceless Brokers』 first introduces the founders of the raw materials brokerage business, Ludwig Jesselson, Theodor Weisser, and John H.
Introducing MacMillan Jr., the book covers the history of the raw materials brokerage industry, from the birth of Glencore, Vitol, and Cargill, the world's three largest raw materials brokers, over 13 chapters.
Through the stories of Vitol, which was behind the Libyan 'Arab Spring'; Makrich & Co, which changed the regime in Jamaica in the 1980s by providing funds instead of the IMF (to secure aluminum); and Gunbor Energy, the unsung hero of Putin's long-term rule, we can learn in detail about who they dealt with, how they did it, and the impact of those deals.
What raw material brokers, who handle different resources and come from different nationalities, languages, and races, have in common is that there is no standard for good or evil.
Profit is the only criterion.
That is why they thoroughly erase their 'faces' and engage in mediation.
Why is that? Because the more "shady" the brokerage, the greater the profit.
Also, if you are swayed by good and evil, you cannot gain much benefit.
Is the content of this book limited to Jamaica and Russia? Our country is not immune to their influence, either.
The terms 'supply chain crisis' and 'supply shortage' are now all too familiar.
If the import of raw materials is cut off, the Korean economy will come to a standstill with all factories and stores shutting down.
More than half of our tables will disappear.
For this book, Blass and Passi collected and analyzed thousands of pages of data detailing the financials of privately held, non-public commodity brokers, their subsidiaries, their governance structures, and their trading practices.
It also includes over 20 years of reporting and interviews with actual raw materials brokerage business managers.
Naturally, these are the details that raw material brokers and intermediaries wanted to keep hidden until the very end.
Most raw material brokers are private companies.
In other words, there is no need to disclose management information as much as a joint-stock company.
Moreover, they consider their superior information power as a weapon, so they would have used every possible means to keep company information as secret as possible.
About a year before Ian Taylor passed away in 2020, we met with him to write a book.
He told us straight up.
“I warn you, I hope you don’t write a book.” - From “Introduction”
If you want to be a good consumer,
If you want to manage sustainably,
Read this before you buy Starbucks stock because it's raining in Brazil!
At the opposite end of the current trend of ethical consumption, sustainable management, and ESG are raw material brokerage companies.
They make a fortune from oil and coal, which are the causes of climate change, and they trade in cotton and coffee beans, which are the result of dictatorship and child labor.
If you want to be a good consumer or an ethical consumer, or if you are a manager who must practice ethical management, you need to know what kind of place Glencore or Cargill are, and what kind of person Ivan Glasenberg is.
We need to know them not only from an ethical perspective but also from an investment perspective.
There is a book called, "When It Rains in Brazil, Buy Starbucks Stock."
But when it rains in Brazil, who will be the first to move? It won't be the stock market or investors, but commodities brokers.
Because we will buy coffee beans faster than anyone else and control the price of coffee beans.
Perhaps Starbucks' stock price depends more on the commodity brokerage than on the Brazilian rains.
Those who truly control our lives are not the Blue House, Samsung, or Google, but rather ‘faceless intermediaries.’
Without proper understanding of them, neither ethical consumption, successful investment, nor a sustainable future are possible.
This is why we must face the faces of the 'faceless intermediaries'.
The only book that contains the most explicit and persistent personal information about them is "The Faceless Brokers."
And the secret they wanted to keep hidden until the end
『Faceless Brokers』 first introduces the founders of the raw materials brokerage business, Ludwig Jesselson, Theodor Weisser, and John H.
Introducing MacMillan Jr., the book covers the history of the raw materials brokerage industry, from the birth of Glencore, Vitol, and Cargill, the world's three largest raw materials brokers, over 13 chapters.
Through the stories of Vitol, which was behind the Libyan 'Arab Spring'; Makrich & Co, which changed the regime in Jamaica in the 1980s by providing funds instead of the IMF (to secure aluminum); and Gunbor Energy, the unsung hero of Putin's long-term rule, we can learn in detail about who they dealt with, how they did it, and the impact of those deals.
What raw material brokers, who handle different resources and come from different nationalities, languages, and races, have in common is that there is no standard for good or evil.
Profit is the only criterion.
That is why they thoroughly erase their 'faces' and engage in mediation.
Why is that? Because the more "shady" the brokerage, the greater the profit.
Also, if you are swayed by good and evil, you cannot gain much benefit.
Is the content of this book limited to Jamaica and Russia? Our country is not immune to their influence, either.
The terms 'supply chain crisis' and 'supply shortage' are now all too familiar.
If the import of raw materials is cut off, the Korean economy will come to a standstill with all factories and stores shutting down.
More than half of our tables will disappear.
For this book, Blass and Passi collected and analyzed thousands of pages of data detailing the financials of privately held, non-public commodity brokers, their subsidiaries, their governance structures, and their trading practices.
It also includes over 20 years of reporting and interviews with actual raw materials brokerage business managers.
Naturally, these are the details that raw material brokers and intermediaries wanted to keep hidden until the very end.
Most raw material brokers are private companies.
In other words, there is no need to disclose management information as much as a joint-stock company.
Moreover, they consider their superior information power as a weapon, so they would have used every possible means to keep company information as secret as possible.
About a year before Ian Taylor passed away in 2020, we met with him to write a book.
He told us straight up.
“I warn you, I hope you don’t write a book.” - From “Introduction”
If you want to be a good consumer,
If you want to manage sustainably,
Read this before you buy Starbucks stock because it's raining in Brazil!
At the opposite end of the current trend of ethical consumption, sustainable management, and ESG are raw material brokerage companies.
They make a fortune from oil and coal, which are the causes of climate change, and they trade in cotton and coffee beans, which are the result of dictatorship and child labor.
If you want to be a good consumer or an ethical consumer, or if you are a manager who must practice ethical management, you need to know what kind of place Glencore or Cargill are, and what kind of person Ivan Glasenberg is.
We need to know them not only from an ethical perspective but also from an investment perspective.
There is a book called, "When It Rains in Brazil, Buy Starbucks Stock."
But when it rains in Brazil, who will be the first to move? It won't be the stock market or investors, but commodities brokers.
Because we will buy coffee beans faster than anyone else and control the price of coffee beans.
Perhaps Starbucks' stock price depends more on the commodity brokerage than on the Brazilian rains.
Those who truly control our lives are not the Blue House, Samsung, or Google, but rather ‘faceless intermediaries.’
Without proper understanding of them, neither ethical consumption, successful investment, nor a sustainable future are possible.
This is why we must face the faces of the 'faceless intermediaries'.
The only book that contains the most explicit and persistent personal information about them is "The Faceless Brokers."
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: May 31, 2023
- Page count, weight, size: 604 pages | 145*215*35mm
- ISBN13: 9791169257763
- ISBN10: 1169257763
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