The Offshore World: Sovereign Markets, Virtual Places, and Nomad Millionaires

by Ronen Palan

The atlas of contemporary capitalism is curious indeed. A desperately poor and civil-war-wracked nation, Liberia, is the world's shipping superpower; the Cayman Islands the fifth-largest financial center in the world; land-locked Zurich a venerable "offshore" banking center. Indeed, it is estimated that half of the global stock of money passes through tax havens. The logic of the offshore world, where millionaires and corporations roam in search of financial advantage, is slippery. It challenges many conventional assumptions about power and economics. In the single most comprehensive account of the offshore economy, Ronen Palan investigates the legal spaces, unregulated and yet maintained and supported by the state system, that have emerged for purposes of international finance, tax havens, export processing zones, flags of convenience, and e-commerce. The offshore economy had its beginnings in the late nineteenth century, saw early development after the First World War, and metastasized in the 1970s. Palan believes that a rapidly expanding offshore economy is now producing a new market in sovereignty; states have discovered that their rights to write law may be used as a commercial asset. This commercialization of sovereignty, he asserts, undermines the legitimacy of the nation-state and supports a form of nomadic capitalism.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jamie (Books and Ladders) · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that this was a bad book, it was just written horribly. It was so confusing and felt like every other word had been put through a thesaurus to sound smarter which is aggravating. I felt as though I learned something new and considered something that I hadn't before, but that was weighed down by how much I dreaded picking this one up to read. If I didn't have to read it and present on it for class, this never would have been finished. I think the offshore world is fascinating and we should be paying more attention to it than what we are, but man we need better literature about it.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched history of offshore markets presented with a unifying theory of its relationship to the state. One issue is that it's twenty years old now and I'd love to read an updated version. Second complaint is at times it goes into quite theoretical (philosophical) political science discussion that I'm not particularly interested in. Overall still a thought-provoking book and a good way to wrap my head around "offshore".

[Elruin Elmsroot · Rating 1 out of 5]

An obsolete offshore history book.