Treasure Islands

Amazing book on tax havens

I learned more things in this book than I typically do in 10 books combined.

Shaxson provides an eye-opening account into the seedy, underground world of offshore finance. Most of the stuff Shaxson discusses is not well known in public and is rarely commented on in mainstream media or newspapers.

For example, were you aware that the two biggest offshore zones are in fact the United Kingdom and the United States? In fact, the state of Delaware is actually the biggest "offshore" location in the United States. It has more incorporated organizations than anywhere else, and some of the laxest regulation. Just take a quick scan of some of the biggest companies in America and you'll find a majority are incorporated in Delaware (Bank of America for instance, or Sallie Mae, Amazon, Pfizer, etc.) It's too many giant companies to be merely coincidental.

The overall picture he paints is both fascinating and frightening, but it seems very possible that something could be done about tax evasion and the looting of poor countries by the rich countries if the main financial centers that aid the businesses in their looting decided to crack down in unison. But for them to ever do that, more people are going to have to understand how the whole system works. It's complicated, but very interesting and Shaxson does a great job explaining every facet of it.

As for this audio recording, I'd recommend getting it and listening to it. But be warned that the guy who does the reading does the most bizarre job I've ever listened to here at Audible. There are multiple times during the course of this book where he reads the same sentence over again. Often he'll stop, and start again with noticeable random pauses mid-sentence. A couple times he stopped reading and I could hear talking in the background. None of this is edited out -- it's like they let him read it all, first time through, and didn't do anything over and didn't bother to edit out the mistakes. Just bizarre, but he still successfully passes along the information of the book in a somewhat entertaining manner (this guy makes up about a thousand voices for the many different people Shaxson quotes from to tell his story).

Pick up this book. I liked it so much I also bought a hard copy to re-read it.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Important and shocking

Treasure Islands is a book that takes you on a journey into the secret world of finance. Although I have had some experience with the subject before, I was shocked at the scale that tax fraud and secrecy has reached. The book covers both the historical background for how we ended up in todays situation, as well as up to date examples of how the financial crisis was in large caused by tax havens.

This book is a must read, and it should be mandatory for all politicians, students and voters.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Beyond ideology

Although this book might seem a bit provocative, the argument presented against the offshore business is mostly fact based. I think that it is safe to say that economic policy does not need to be based on ideology anymore, but we can go beyond ideology and base our political opinions on facts.

Offshore business does not help economy as a whole, but it is rather a way to increase the profits of the few and externalize the risks for those, who are doing the productive work and are the true source of the wealth. Also offshoring is not only about tax evasion, but it is mostly, especially in financial sector, a way to go around the laws and regulations that e.g. necessitate the risk management for the banks. Without proper risk management, bankers can make at offshore up to six times more profit than with proper risk management and tax payers at onshore will pay the bill when the bubble bursts.

This is one of those books that can be gladly recommended for anyone, because offshore business is quite timely topic as it was major contributor for the current financial crisis. There is still plenty to discuss and the public awareness of the true nature of offshoring is increasing quite rapidly.

Narration was also quite good and quite British.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Everybody should read this book. Period.

It's both interesting and depressing to listen how we're just a tiny pieces on a much bigger board that's been played above us. The book is most about offshore but it does cover quite nicely how the free floating currency has its ways to of making the rich more rich and poor even worse off. I know this is a socialistic view and I consider myself more of capitalist, but this is exactly what's wrong in capitalism and somehow needs to be addressed. I don't know what a common man can do about this but to raise awareness and go from there.
The only thing that bothered me a little on this book is the narrator. He's great and easy to listen, but so clearly partial that it bothers at some points when the speaker is so clearly a "villain". And the accents are perhaps sometimes too exaggerated, but overall a very pleasant listen.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Stranger than fiction!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is one of the best books that I've read in years. The audio version is outstanding.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The people trying to leave the bastions of tax secrecy were courageous, scared, and compelling.

Have you listened to any of Tim Bentinck’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but he's very easy to understand.

Any additional comments?

One of the best things that I've read in years.
This book will become increasingly important over the next several years, as economic pressures on individuals and governments prompt people to start asking where all the money went.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

A real eye opener

Would you consider the audio edition of Treasure Islands to be better than the print version?

If you read this with an open mind, you may see the future of global finance and be able to better prepare for what is about to happen.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

A must read/listen to book

The book itself is great. An amazing expose on the criminality of offshore behaviour.

The performance is solid. I like how the actor varied his accents, although his East Asian accent needs work.

The only negative feedback that I can give is that the audiobook performance needs to be edited. Several times the actor would repeat himself, or start over and once there was a long break where, I assume, he took a sip of much needed beverage.

Overall, it puts another piece of the puzzle of society in place. Maybe Jeffrey Wynters is right and we have always lived in oligarchic societies. This book certainly suggests so.

Finally, a warning: one section of this book directly debunks some modern economic libertarian tenents and beliefs. American self-described libertarians are guaranteed to be triggered by this section... or by the whole book for that matter.

Cheers!

What a waste

The offshore business world is such an interesting subject. This book could have been an important work but instead it became a worthless waste of time. he spends almost 13 hours complaining about offshore banks and juristictions and in the process shows very little understanding of the subject, the businessworld and globalization.

He believes in the unlimited power of the government. Following the law is not good enough and he considers all companies and individuals using offshore accounts to be criminals even though these companies and individuals work inside the law. Even when these offshore juristictions donate money to environmental causes or help to fight powerty they are treated with suspicion and called criminal. Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Jersey, Guernsey and others are all described as criminal states. One of the most absurd parts is about a "criminal" english bank who only fault was to reject a request for information from FBI, awaiting a court order. Of course in compliance with english (and american and international) law.

This book was written by a little person with a little mind and the result sucks.

This is a total waste of time which is a shame because we really need a good book about this subject.

The narrator was ok :-)

4 of 9 people found this review helpful

Nice story, but pure Utopianism

The book starts with a useful framework to define tax havens (secrecy jurisdictions) followed by a very interesting history of their development. However, all along the read, there are little signs that we're being taken for a ride.

The first off-note comes from Shaxson's attributions that nearly all of the world's woes lay at the doors of the tax havens. He goes so far as to say that they played a leading role in the financial crisis by hiding the leveraging. hmmmm, I've read about a dozen books on the financial crisis (the best being "All The Devils Are Here") and that angle is not supported by anyone except Shaxon. The leveraging was well known and visible.

Throughout the book, he uses straw-man arguments to support his assertions. He references some of the most extreme libertarians to argue on behalf of tax havens and then eviscerates their points. So what? Anybody can do that - they're kooks. The tactic was overused enough that it became a clear form of deception.

Gradually, the book moves from interesting argument to utopianism. He paints a picture of the world before tax havens as idealistic. He embraces the US Senator Carl Levin's assertions that the tax havens are costing billions to the US Treasury and other governments without a challenge. The US Congressional Budget Office has shown Levin's arguments to be false and this is out there for Shaxson to see.

On the positive side, Shaxson does a great job of exposing the hypocrisy of US and UK efforts to reign in tax havens, while maintaining their own leading positions as tax havens. There is a humorous moment involving 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware. But even then, he pulled punches ... a disappointment.

He touched on one of the legitimate reasons that tax havens exist: Some governments resort to confiscatory tax schemes. He had no defense for these governments' actions (good for him), but he argues that tax havens are to blame for this too - a logical contortion indeed. By his argument, havens hide these problems from the electorate's scrutiny and deny the people the opportunity to demand changes to the laws. Naive... More than that, it's a dangerous naivety.

It's more likely that tax havens are a more effective response to such laws... and that's a pity, but a lot better than no response at all. It is more likely that without tax havens, there would be a confiscatory tax specially designed for each weak and voiceless demographic. And this is just as true for developed democracies as it is for dictatorships.

Did you know that the US capital gains tax rates on the foreign pensions of Americans living overseas (0.5% of the US population) has exceeded 100% for the last ten years and will climb above 200% in 2013? More importantly - do you care? Do you think those laws will change?

The book comes down to utopianism dressed up as journalism.

3 of 7 people found this review helpful

A worthwhile listen.

An interesting book if you can get past the author's naive cheerleading for high taxes and big government.

2 of 6 people found this review helpful