Greg Palast is an American investigative reporter living in Britain. In terms of US stories, he is most noted for helping break the news of Katherine Harris eliminating voters from Florida polls prior to the 2000 election. The state claimed they were convicted felons but in fact nearly all were eligible to vote and 54% were black. Specifically he found that the State of Florida contracted with DBT Online (now part of ChoicePoint) at a much higher cost than competing bids because they could do all kinds of cross-checks for accuracy. Then the state directed the company not to do those checks and in fact to make the criteria "looser".
The writing during the first half of the book is a bit spotty. I found this odd since if you are making serious accusations, coming off as a bit of a crackpot doesn't help get the word out. The book is in reverse-chronological order and several later stories, such as those covering the Exxon Valdez disaster, are of a higher quality.
His circa 1998 investigative reports into paying for access to Tony Blair's government were also interesting. Palast posed as a Texas businessman looking to get environmental wavers for a power project in the UK. To make a long story short, yes you can buy #10 Downing Street. And that was back when Blair was best friends with Clinton.
I suspect you have to be of a certain mind to appreciate the book. You can also check out his work at www.gregpalast.com/