Treasure islands
"We are witnessing the greatest shift of wealth from poor to rich in history. In the United States alone, the wealthiest avoid paying an astonishing $53 billion in taxes each year. Nicholas Shaxson, in league with the Tax Justice Network, dives deep into the secret world of tax havens and takes us to hot spots from Switzerland to Panama to Delaware in a riveting narrative of how society loses through illegal tax evasion. With jaw-dropping stories and vivid explanations, Shaxson highlights the biggest players in the game, and shows how: - More than 12,750 foreign corporations get out of paying taxes each year by claiming to have offices in the same five-story building in the Cayman Islands. - One thousand children die every day as a result of illegal, trade related tax evasion. - Although billions are poured annually into Africa, corrupt officials there stow twice as much away in tax havens, making Africa a net creditor to the rest of the world. "
Stats for nerds
17recommend
46mentions
22people
2011–2024years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I recommend the book Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson. It covers offshore tax havens and the central role played by the City in facilitating capital flight and tax avoidance. Chapter 12 is devoted entirely to the City of London Corporation.
Haven't read it for a while but I do recall the word "strange" appearing a lot.
- "ultimately controlled from London"
I found the book "Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World" interesting which has a large junk on this topic. The tax havens don't have data centers or any infrastructure, the banks of tax havens of the former English Empire have their money with banks in London.
- > The United Kingdom went from a country with enormously outsized global influence to just another European nation.
You should read the book Treasure Islands by Nick Shaxson.
The UK may not be the global military/political power it once was (and that's probably a good thing), but it is still very much in the middle of the global economy (and not in a good way).
This isn't to refute any of your points, but it was an eye-opening read.
- The British monarchy has a complicated and symbiotic relationship with the City of London as enshrined in the Statute of William and Mary [1]
[1] https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/new-history-lond...
Public sentiments regarding the monarchy have been massaged over the centuries via the British media which is also utterly entangled in the City. It's all one giant mutual interest collective which practises tax evasion on a galactic scale.
I'd recommend picking up a copy of "Treasure Islands" by Nicholas Shaxson. Chapter 12 ("Griffin") focuses on the City and I'd also recommend viewing the reactions to any anti-monarchy campaign through this lens.
- Treasure Islands and Moneyland[1] are both terrific books. For me it shed quite some light on post colonial finance structure which we are currently living through. History of eurodollar, pivotal (and shady) role played by Bank of England and how it doesn't answer even to British government, the fascinating story around City of London (I didn't even know such a thing existed), and so on. Highly recommended.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/09/moneyland-oliv...
- Yeah came here to also say that I was glad to see Treasure Islands at the top of the list.
It's the most fascinating, and yet angering, book I've read in a while..
Related
Economyths
1 recommend · 2
Moneyland
17 recommend · 30
Treasure Island
29 recommend · 57
The Wealth of Nations
92 recommend · 666
The creature from Jekyll Island
27 recommend · 57
The Richest Man in Babylon
56 recommend · 86
Naked Economics
15 recommend · 20
