For most of the twentieth century, seven Western companies ran the global oil business like it was their private club. They decided how much oil was pumped, where it went, and what it cost. Then, country by country, the club got kicked out. Chapter 26 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells how the old Seven Sisters lost their grip and a new set of state-owned giants took over.
For most of the twentieth century, seven Western companies ran the global oil business like it was their private club. They decided how much oil was pumped, where it went, and what it cost. Then, country by country, the club got kicked out. Chapter 26 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells how the old Seven Sisters lost their grip and a new set of state-owned giants took over.
Chapter 1 of Lucifer’s Banker is basically a backstory episode. Before the Swiss bank accounts and the billion-dollar fraud, Bradley Birkenfeld was just a kid from Massachusetts with too much energy and a nose for making money.
Some people trade commodities. Some people build entire industries. Chapter 25 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Lakshmi Mittal, a man who spent three decades buying steel plants that nobody wanted and turned them into the largest steel company the world has ever seen.
Some people trade commodities. Some people build entire industries. Chapter 25 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of Lakshmi Mittal, a man who spent three decades buying steel plants that nobody wanted and turned them into the largest steel company the world has ever seen.
The prologue of this book opens on a freezing January morning in 2010. Bradley Birkenfeld is sitting in a Lexus, being driven to federal prison by his older brother Doug. Outside, a snowstorm is pounding rural Pennsylvania. Inside the car, neither man has much to say.
John Fredriksen did not drill for oil. He carried it. He did not fish in the ocean. He farmed it. Chapter 24 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of a Norwegian who built an eight-billion-dollar empire on tankers, oil rigs, and salmon.
John Fredriksen did not drill for oil. He carried it. He did not fish in the ocean. He farmed it. Chapter 24 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells the story of a Norwegian who built an eight-billion-dollar empire on tankers, oil rigs, and salmon.
What would you do if you found out your employer was helping the richest people on the planet hide billions from the IRS? Keep quiet and collect your fat paycheck? Or blow the whole thing wide open and risk everything?
If you have seen the 1983 movie Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, you remember the final scene. The trading floor of the New York commodity exchange. Two old millionaires trying to corner the frozen orange juice market. Total chaos. People yelling, waving paper, sweat everywhere. That scene was fiction, but the commodity was real. Frozen concentrated orange juice is traded on NYMEX, and the price can move violently when nature decides to get involved. Chapter 23 of Torsten Dennin’s “From Tulips to Bitcoins” tells what happened when the most destructive hurricane seasons in recorded history hit the real orange juice market. The price quadrupled. And unlike the movie, nobody was laughing.