The hidden globe How wealth hacks the world

Journalist Abrahamian (The Cosmopolites) takes a revelatory look at a globe-spanning collection of "offshore jurisdictions," "legal black holes," and "free zones" that she argues form a "frontier" where nations "abdicate" their law-enforcing powers in aid of tax-evading elites or use loopholes to skirt their own laws. Abrahamian begins by delving into the histories of contemporary tax havens and "freeports" (starting with her hometown of Geneva, where since 1888 the Geneva Freeport has sheltered high-value items from taxation), but her scope is far broader; she also highlights ways in which new and evolving 20th- and 21st-century types of "liminal" spaces contribute to this "mercenary world order." These include cruise ships used for "shipboard interdiction," a form of legal gymnastics developed in the 1960s by the U.S. to house migrants in a borderless no-man's land; and the recent divvying up of space by small wealthy countries like Tonga, now the sixth-largest owner of orbital slots for satellites. She also profiles figures deeply enmeshed in this world, including Claude de Baissac, a French businessman who advises developing nations on the creation of free zones. Providing poetic insight into what drew him to such spaces, an unapologetic de Baissac says, "It's... the out-of-pattern-ness, and the idiosyncrasy"--a sentiment shared by Abrahamian, who perceptively analyzes these zones as neither "all good, nor all evil," but as "cracks" that reveal how the world really works. It's an impressive achievement. (Oct.)

Sharply observed descent into the labyrinth of finance and semantics with which nations and the superrich secure their wealth. Abrahamian unravels the opaque world of "special economic zones" and other places she terms "legal fictions," where national and economic boundaries are blurred. She examines "how consultants, lawyers, financiers, and other mercenaries have carved out physical and virtual space above, below, and between nations." Her research entailed travel to places that "are a product of colonialism, capitalism, technology, megalomania, and a pinch of alchemy," including remote regions of Laos (economically co-opted by China) and an "open" Norwegian settlement near the North Pole. Other areas she investigates are the wide use in shipping of deceptive flags of convenience and likely future struggles over asteroid mining and ownership of space. Her focus begins appropriately with Geneva, where she grew up, termed a "City of Holes" for its legendary discretion, "a kind of black hole straddling globalization and regulation," forever marked by the "steep moral cost" of its financial complicity with the Nazis during World War II. She describes the Geneva Freeport warehouse as an example of actual physical spaces not fully subject to state controls, "essentially a legal hack" with a clear role in hiding artworks for the rich to evade taxes. Other chapters examine how Western financial interests promoted "free-trade zones" in remote nations like Mauritius, noting, "This made it profitable for American firms to seek out manufacturing opportunities abroad rather than making products in the U.S., where labor cost more." Abrahamian also considers trendy concepts like "charter cities," noting, "To cede this territory to rigidly ideological capitalists alone would be a big mistake." Her well-researched, engrossing work manages the minutiae of several fields, including telecommunications, maritime law, and fine art, to stitch together a multilayered tale of how privilege works to protect itself. Important documentation of how mechanisms favored by the 1 percent increase global inequalities. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.