Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World

SUMMARY:
Dirty money, tax havens and the offshore system - this secretive world is far bigger, and more central to the world economy, than almost anyone realises. The World Bank has reported that the flow of dirty money across borders, out of developing countries and into the rich economies, is up to ten times greater than the foreign aid that flows the other way. The offshore system has been - discreetly - responsible for the greatest shift of wealth from poor to rich in the history of our planet. It is undermining our democracies, and offering the wealthiest sections of our societies escape routes from tax, regulation, and other normal democratic controls. This is the ugliest chapter in global economic affairs since slavery. Most people either ignore tax havens, or see them merely as tropical islands peopled by crooks, spivs, spies and celebrity tax exiles. They mistakenly believe that the main offshore problems are money laundering and terrorist financing. These are essentially small parts of the picture. "Treasure Islands" exposes the much bigger game. The 'anti-globalisation' movement tapped into an uneasy feeling, shared by millions of people, that something was rotten in the world economy. They were right. But so far, they have struggled to understand where the real problem lies. The huge reservoir of deep mistrust still pervades and "Treasure Islands" sets out to articulate the problem and expose the deep levels of corruption that impacts our lives on a daily basis. This profound, coherent analysis, backed by the leading experts in the field, will identify the original source of the trouble and bring to the fore the pressing, urgent debate about tax and its role in the world economy, development and foreign aid.