Narconomics

How to Run a Drug Cartel

By: Tom Wainwright

Narrated by: Brian Hutchison

What drug lords learned from big business.

How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the $300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola.

And what can government learn to combat this scourge? By analyzing the cartels as companies, law enforcers might better understand how they work - and stop throwing away $100 billion a year in a futile effort to win the "war" against this global, highly organized business.

Your intrepid guide to the most exotic and brutal industry on earth is Tom Wainwright. Picking his way through Andean cocaine fields, Central American prisons, Colorado pot shops, and the online drug dens of the Dark Web, Wainwright provides a fresh, innovative look into the drug trade and its 250 million customers.

The cast of characters includes "Bin Laden", the Bolivian coca guide; "Old Lin", the Salvadoran gang leader; "Starboy", the millionaire New Zealand pill maker; and a cozy Mexican grandmother who cooks blueberry pancakes while plotting murder. Along with presidents, cops, and teenage hit men, they explain such matters as the business purpose for head-to-toe tattoos, how gangs decide whether to compete or collude, and why cartels care a surprising amount about corporate social responsibility.

More than just an investigation of how drug cartels do business, Narconomics is also a blueprint for how to defeat them.

©2016 Tom Wainwright (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Educational and Entertaining

I CANNOT recommend this book enough!! SERIOUSLY! It is the most entertaining and intellectual book/study I've ever read. It compares the dark world of drugs, cartels, gangs, human trafficking, etc. to corporations and basic business practices to shed a light on the economic impact of decisions that both sides are making, and how the real world cause and effects don't always correlate with the logical solutions being implemented. We attack supply instead of addressing demand. We focus on enforcement instead of prevention or treatment. We save money now but pay exponentially for it later. It's studies like this that we need to educate ourselves and each other, to make informed decisions to create and change public policy that will actually make a difference. Numbers don't lie.

Hand the narrator a cleaver, he's a butcher!

if you are sensitive to mispronounced words (Spanish) then don't bother with this book. I am flabbergasted that an audio book would be recorded with the narrator not knowing how to pronounce the words he is reading. most takes place in Mexico, and they chose a person who can't roll his r's or pronounce a simple word like Medillan. So that greatly distracted me from being able to absorb the details. Other than that the book is interesting. Having lived in Mexico, going on 22 years now, I did find some things interesting and a few sensationalized, which is to be expected. Overall it is an intelligent read if you can get past the butchering. Really Audible and author or whomever picks the narrators. You should all be ashamed! I think I may buy the print version.

good intro to the drug world

This book provides an insight into the underground world and compares it to the business world. The result, similar resemblance. Some times it skips from one subject to another without notice.

great book

an excellent book if you want a deeper understanding of market forces in the open, grey, and black markets.. highly recommended.

Interesting

Nothing particularly groundbreaking or new here from a business or solutions perspective, but an engaging behind the scenes look at the evolution and inner workings of the illegal drug industry nonetheless. The exploration of the effectiveness and broader impact of the different approaches taken by gangs and cartels in various regions was especially interesting.

Narration was also...interesting. While his voice was pleasant and engaging to listen to, I was surprised at the decision to use a narrator who couldn't pronounce even the most basic Spanish words, and also couldn't pronounce the word OxyContin (instead calling it "oxycotton," which would be hilarious were it not so serious) when both feature so prominently in the book. Comical as it often was (I laughed out loud several times), the mispronciations did frequently distract me from the actual narrative and result in having to go back and re-listen more than a few times.

Overall an enjoyable read/listen.

Excellent book.

Great fact based analysis of the war on drugs and its inefficiencies. It can be slightly repetitive, but overwhelms with the amount of information on display.

Thought-provoking and Contemporarily Relevant

Given the same tactics and perspectives on drugs over the last 40 years, it is refreshing hearing the perspective of an economist on possible solutions to what are clearly major issues. Drugs obviously create numerous problems and a sense of discomfort to discuss, but a more reasoned and scientific approach to management is definitely necessary.

The one complaint I have is regarding the narrator and his inability to pronounce Spanish words, but overall his performance was fine.

informative and entertaining

through interesting interviews and entertaining retellings of drug history the author manages to make a compelling point and inform the listener at the same time. recommended for all who want to learn more about the economics, history and future of (illicit) drugs.

Great! Entertaining. Informative. Recommended.

Great! One of the most entertaining non-fiction I have read the last year.
It's easy to read and with entertaining comparisons.
Plus the narration is good.

Pretty solid, good insight

Author did a great job of explaining and tying drug cartels to regular business. The basis for both are really the same but it is really cool to hear his stories and interviews. Was a pretty solid book, REALLY GOOD narrator.