* Dirty money, tax havens and the offshore system describe the ugliest and most secretive chapter in the history of global economic affairs.
* Tax havens have declared war on honest, law-abiding people around the world.
* Wealthy individuals hold over ten trillion dollars offshore.
* Tax havens are the most important single reason why poor people and poor countries stay poor.
* Britain and the United States are the world's two most important tax havens.
* Tax havens now lie at the very heart of the global economy. Over half of world trade, and most international lending, is processed through them.
* Tax havens have been instrumental in nearly every major economic event, in every big financial scandal, and in every financial crisis since the 1970s, including the latest global economic crisis. Treasure Islandsshows how this happens and reveals what the economics text books will not tell you.
Recommend this book
Add your recommendation
Only registered users can recommend books. Please use the buttons below to either create a new account, or sign-in to an existing account.
Trade and investments can play a profoundly productive role on the world economy. But so much of the capital flows that we see are associated with money laundering, tax evasion, and the wholesale larceny of assets often of very poor countries. These thefts are greatly facilitated by special tax and accounting rules or designed to 'attract capital' and embodying obscure and opaque mechanisms. Shaxson does an outstanding and socially valuable job in penetrating the impenetrable and finds a deeply shocking world
-
At last, a readable - indeed gripping - book which explains the nuts and bolts of tax havens. More importantly, it lays bare the mechanism that financial capital has been using to stay in charge: capturing government policy-making around the world, shaking off such irritants as democracy and the rule of law, and making sure that suckers like you and me pay for its operators' opulent lifestyles -
Treasure Islands is the best book on tax havens, ever. It shines a light in some very dark places. It reads like a thriller. The shocking thing is, it's all true. The world's suppliers of corruption services - the bankers, lawyers and accountants working from tax havens - won't want you to read this book. Which is exactly why you should -
The struggle against money power is a struggle for human freedom, and Nicholas Shaxson's investigation is a timely exposé of where the plunder is buried -
Far more than an exposé, Treasure Islands is a brilliantly illuminating, forensic analysis of where economic power really lies, and the shockingly corrupt way in which it behaves. If you're wondering how ordinary people ended up paying for a crisis caused by the reckless greed of the banking industry, this compellingly readable book provides the answers -
They who sold us globalisation as a way of the whole world getting richer with fair rules, cheated us by letting the rich and powerful go 'offshore'. This gripping exposé should help end the scandal -
In this riveting, well-written expose, Shaxson goes deep into the largely unexamined realm of offshore money. In the process, he reveals that this shadow world is no mere sideshow, but is troublingly central to modern finance, with the US and the UK as leaders. The resulting abuses are widespread, ranging from tax revenue stripping from African nations to individuals and corporations escaping enforcement and accountability. A must read for anyone who wants to understand the hidden reasons why financial services firms have become so powerful and impossible to reform -
Shaxson combines meticulous research with amusing anecdotes, resulting in a very readable account of the murky world of offshore and a strong moral message that the system needs to be changed. - Financial Times
Possibly the most important political book that I have read since The Spirit Level -
A gobsmacking indictment of a global conspiracy that makes City bonuses seem like small change - The Herald
Perhaps the most important book published in the UK so far this year. - Guardian
He has prised the lid off an important and terrifying can of worms. - Literary Review
Lively and well-written book... - Mail on Sunday
By the way while I shamelessly plug my own book I want to plug somebody else's as well. I am sure everybody knows it but the book by Nick Shaxson, Treasure Islands, is reallyan utterly superb book -
Nicholas Shaxson is the author of Poisoned Wells, the Dirty Politics of African Oil,an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and an experienced journalist.
