The most potent force in global finance today isn't Wall Street, the multinational banks, or the G7 countries. In this brilliant and startling investigation, Eric J. Weiner uncovers the real leaders guiding our shaky recovery from the financial crisis. Taking advantage of liquidity problems in Europe and the US, cash-flush nations including China, Qatar, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Norway are using sovereign wealth funds and other vehicles to buy up major stakes in corporations and massive tracts of farmland and natural resources. This is the Shadow Market, quietly yet aggressively forming the power structure of tomorrow's economy.